This is an archive page of the Blogger News Network. All stories posted on BNN are copyrighted by their author. All site elements on BNN are copyright 2005, Robert Hayes.

The Left Wants To Emulate Europe - Should We?
by cracker
Originally posted to BNN 3/14/2005

This is from Neal Boortz at www.boortz.com and is one of my favorites:

This is one of my favorites. From Alexander Tyler. No, he wasn't writing about the United States. This quote is well over one hundred years old. Tyler was writing about the fall of the Athenian Republic.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

With talk of democracy here and in the middle-east, this quote takes on more significance. We are seeing examples of these stages around the world. For instance, here in America, the Dems agenda focuses on entitlements and markets those entitlements to its voting base. America is moving from apathy to dependency. I believe that is why we had a record voter turnout in November.

We have the conservatives touting the ownership society, responsibility, and accountability, and we have the liberals touting welfare, socialized medicine, and free healthcare. The right promotes individualism while the left promotes collectivism.
The right wants less government intervention in business while the left wants to increase government intervention including mandatory paid time-off, mandatory paid sick-leave, and mandated minimum wage. Basically, the left wants to become what Europe has become, a socialist society.

Should Americans want to live in a European society here in America? How are those socialistic ideals working for the Europeans? We can get a little insight from an Expatica.com article titled, “Massive Demos Turn up Heat on French Government.”

PARIS, March 11 (AFP) - The French government was under mounting pressure on Friday to deliver concessions after more than half a million protestors took to the streets to defend the 35-hour work week and demand better pay.

In Europe, the government takes an active role in labor, labor relations, and labor negotiations. It is an example of government intervention into private business. This is what the liberals and Democrats want here in America.

Admitting Thursday's nationwide protests had been a "success", government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said they showed that "there are in fact many concerns, a lot of questions and worries bothering many of our countrymen."

Seeking to respond to the increasing social discontent, the centre-right government indicated that it would move to kick-start pay negotiations in the private and public sector.

Police said at least 570,000 people joined Thursday's protests across France, which were accompanied by transport strikes that paralysed the Paris metro system and area airports. Organisers said more than a million took part.

The unions have much more power in Europe than here in America. The basic philosophy of a democracy is mob rules. In this case, the unions paralyzed the metro system doing untold damages to the economy and life in general to the commuters. And for what were the unions utilizing their power?

The protests were part of a campaign by labour unions and the Socialist opposition to force President Jacques Chirac to increase wages, reverse reforms of the 35-hour work week and cease efforts to curb the welfare state.

"Higher salaries, shorter working hours, against deregulation and unemployment," read the giant banner at the head of the Paris protest, which police said drew some 35,000 participants - 150,000, according to organisers.

So the unions recognized their power and are utilizing their power for more money and compensation. Who pays for this? The consumers and the government pay for this. The unions understand they can vote themselves money from the public treasury, and they have been doing this for quite some time. Have the unions and this socialistic philosophy benefited France?

France's jobless rate jumped above the symbolic 10 percent mark in January - its highest level in five years - and workers have become even more disillusioned following news of record profits in the country's top publicly-quoted companies.

The history to fixing France’s unemployment rate has been to reduce working hours and hiring more people. The problem of wages and compensation then arises. Workers do not want to accept lower pay for fewer hours worked, so the government antes up. This is typical of government intervention in business defined by socialism.

Socialist leader Francois Hollande on Friday called on Raffarin to take "a quick, clear decision on the central issue of purchasing power".

Unions charge that public sector workers have lost five percent of their buying power since January 2000, taking into account current inflation rates.
Above all, the government does not want the growing dissatisfaction of workers to snowball into a protest "no" vote against a referendum to approve the European Union constitution, scheduled for May 29.

Unfortunately, there are many in this country that hate capitalism and hate big corporations, so much so, they want to restrict the power a corporation has over its employees and regulate compensation. Many of these people want to give more power to unions. These people want to increase the quality of life of the average American worker, a noble goal, however, they never seem to understand and recognize the unintended consequences of their actions. In this case, wanting to be like the Europeans will turn America into a socialistic society, a society we don’t want. wage. Basically, the left wants to become what Europe has become, a socialist society.

Should Americans want to live in a European society here in America? How are those socialistic ideals working for the Europeans? We can get a little insight from an Expatica.com article titled, “Massive Demos Turn up Heat on French Government.”

PARIS, March 11 (AFP) - The French government was under mounting pressure on Friday to deliver concessions after more than half a million protestors took to the streets to defend the 35-hour work week and demand better pay.

Admitting Thursday's nationwide protests had been a "success", government spokesman Jean-Francois Cope said they showed that "there are in fact many concerns, a lot of questions and worries bothering many of our countrymen."

Seeking to respond to the increasing social discontent, the centre-right government indicated that it would move to kick-start pay negotiations in the private and public sector.

Police said at least 570,000 people joined Thursday's protests across France, which were accompanied by transport strikes that paralysed the Paris metro system and area airports. Organisers said more than a million took part.

The protests were part of a campaign by labour unions and the Socialist opposition to force President Jacques Chirac to increase wages, reverse reforms of the 35-hour work week and cease efforts to curb the welfare state.

"Higher salaries, shorter working hours, against deregulation and unemployment," read the giant banner at the head of the Paris protest, which police said drew some 35,000 participants - 150,000, according to organisers.

France's jobless rate jumped above the symbolic 10 percent mark in January - its highest level in five years - and workers have become even more disillusioned following news of record profits in the country's top publicly-quoted companies.

Socialist leader Francois Hollande on Friday called on Raffarin to take "a quick, clear decision on the central issue of purchasing power".

Unions charge that public sector workers have lost five percent of their buying power since January 2000, taking into account current inflation rates.
Above all, the government does not want the growing dissatisfaction of workers to snowball into a protest "no" vote against a referendum to approve the European Union constitution, scheduled for May 29.