Reply #53: European economic systems [View All]

[davepc]

are so bounded by taxation and regulation that growth is stagnate. Unemployment rates in the EU average out to around 9%. Germany and France both hovering around 10% for the better part of this decade.

Over-regulation is a major economic inhibitor.

The large expansive safety net shifts the burden of maintaining the society onto an ever shrinking native workforce (due to lower then maintains birth rates) which pushes the need for foreign immigration higher. Which like I said, leads to another whole set of problems.

Safety nets are necessary, level playing fields are necessary. Government as a referee is necessary. Those have all been reasonable and responsible positions held by the Democratic party, and ones that I share.

European systems are astronomically more intrusive and burdensome and as a whole drag down the economies and productivity and relative power of the EU member states.

Developing Eastern European economies are attempting to emulate the American system rather then the Socialist Democratic one found in Germany and France for a reason.

I haven't even discussed tax rates.