Watching Europe Slide

If Rush Limbaugh had written the article, many people would have dismissed it out of hand, but instead there it was on the front page of the New York Times, Sunday, May 25th edition. Wondering if the space had been hijacked by some very conservative economist, I looked up the writer, Steven Erlanger, to discover his credentials.
He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in political philosophy and taught there from 1975 to 1983, while at the same time writing for the Boston Globe. Much of his career has been spent working in several European nations as a Times reporter or bureau chief. Both his education and experience made his article compelling to me as a very interested observer of the political state of the world.
What was so astounding that I want to share it with you? It is a snap shot of present day Europe which I fear we are on the way to emulating. Erlanger makes the point that “Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle.” The countries are raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions “in order to prevent financial collapse.” The crisis is much graver there than here because for many decades they have tried to provide security for all their citizens from the cradle to the grave. We are new to that bandwagon and the sooner we get off the better we will be.
In France, one half of the people retire at age 50. With population falling and baby boomers retiring, it is projected that by 2050 there will be 1.3 people working for every one person on pension. That is staggering and unworkable.
The countries most affected by this crisis are Spain, Portugal and Greece. They are reacting by freezing government workers pay, trimming benefits for state employees (including a bonus of two months salary), canceling big projects and cutting salaries in other places.
But these countries are still doomed if they do not become competitive. At this time they are still hamstrung by “deeply inflexible employment rules, which make it prohibitively expensive to hire or fire people.” What on the face gives job security actually does the opposite. It makes the output of labor so expensive that people opt to buy from lower east nations.
In Cape May County it is springtime and normally at this time most of us are so intent on getting ourselves ready for the season that we can barely stop to wipe the sweat off of our collective brows. This is a perilous time in our nation because it seems that we have elected a president who really likes the European model. Whether we are busy or not, we in our little county need to pay attention or we will find like the Europeans facing a storm that we don’t like.
ART HALL, publisher