Euro-Merica?

Notable & Quotable has this summary statement for us to ponder:

"The United States has now acquired an electorally powerful liberal bourgeoisie who are convinced, as their European counterparts have been for several generations, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, that public spending is inherently virtuous, that poverty can be cured by penalising wealth creation, and that government intervention can engineer social "fairness." But just when some of Europe's political class has begun to appreciate the dangers of this philosophy—that taken to its logical conclusion, it leads to economic stagnation and social division—America seems to have decided that it is the quintessence of enlightened sophistication."

Big Europe Strikes Have Little Effect is subtitled 'Walkouts in Spain, Portugal and Greece Appear Unlikely to Sway Governments Committed to More Austerity Measures:

"General strikes and sporadic violence against government austerity programs racked Spain, Portugal and Greece, but they appeared unlikely to sway the leaders of countries that are becoming inured to protests after four years of economic distress.

Protest fatigue, declining levels of unionization and factionalism within the labor movement have combined to take much of the bite out of strikes as tools for changing government policy, analysts said.

Wednesday's coordinated strikes, denouncing budget cuts encouraged by the European Union, were touted by organizers as the widest union-led challenge to austerity since the start of the global recession in 2008. In Spain and Portugal, subway and bus services were closed or running at limited levels. More than 330 flights were canceled in the two countries. Hospitals were staffed with skeleton crews. . . .

"Austerity offers no solution, but only suffering," said Ignacio Fernández Toxo, the head of the largest labor federation in Spain, which, like Greece, is coping with unemployment of more than 25%.

Union members have become an increasingly small minority of workers, confined to industries such as transportation or auto-making, analysts said. "In some ways they have abused the term general strike," said Alfredo Pastor, a professor at Spain's IESE Business School of the University of Navarra. "Many people are going on as they normally do, or at least trying to.". . .

While most Southern Europeans don't care for government austerity programs, many don't have much sympathy for unions either . . . .

"It's difficult to pinpoint any direct gains anyone has had from a strike in recent years," said Fabian Zuleeg, chief economist at the European Policy Centre, a think tank in Brussels. He said strikes are a "blunt instrument" that can actually be more effective when the economy is more robust and the issue is how to divide a growing economic pie."

Summing Up

Strikes are a lot like raising taxes on the rich.

They may make lots of people feel better temporarily, but the real world won't see a positive change as a result.

Here's what more taxes on the rich will mean. The government will take more money from some and give it to others. It won't be used to bring our deficits under control, and it won't create one single permanent job.

Over time that approach creates government dependency instead of individual self reliance.

Societies that encourage dependency on government, albeit perhaps unintentionally, can't compete with those who foster self reliance. That's what freedom and individualism mean.

Both striking and more government spending create no additional money for society.

That's what we call redistribution.

Those with low paying jobs or without jobs remain in low paying jobs or without jobs, and those with jobs become more uncertain about their future.

Thus, people then spend less, which results in eliminating more jobs, and the beat goes on.

When will we ever learn? It's just common sense.

On the other hand, common sense doesn't win lots of votes or make politicians popular.

Leaderless nations become weak nations. Even self governing ones.

Thanks. Bob.