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Failed States, Part 1: Hopeless European Millennials And The Populist Takeover

Europe is frequently held up as an example of how the rest of the world should behave on a variety of issues. But this comparison misses at least two things: First, “Europe” is actually a lot of different countries in a lot of different situations. Second, much of what seems to work over there only does so because it’s being financed with ever-increasing amounts of debt.

For countries, as for individuals, borrowing money is fun at first but beyond a certain point becomes debilitating, as interest payments begin to crowd out everything else. That’s where a growing number of Europe’s failed states now find themselves, with overly-generous pensions and overly-restrictive labor laws making it virtually impossible to run a functioning market-based economy.

The result: Fewer good jobs and more frustrated voters – especially young ones who have seen only the downside of the current system – and the resulting rise of populist political parties that recognize the problems without offering coherent solutions, thus guaranteeing even more chaos in the future.

As Today’s Wall Street Journal notes, in Italy and Greece, nearly a third of young adults not only aren’t working but aren’t enrolled in school or training. What are they doing? Apparently just sitting around and stewing about life’s injustice.

European unemployment failed states

As for where they’re sitting and stewing, in Greece, Italy and Spain it’s now normal for adults all the way into their 30s to live with their parents, largely because they can’t find work that pays enough to afford a house, car and other requirements of independent life.

Europeans living with parents failed states

Not surprisingly, they’re also failing to attract mates — because who wants to marry an unemployed 30-year-old who lives with his or her parents?

Italian marriages failed states

Add it all up and you get fertile ground for politicians willing to promise a quick fix. In Italy, the populist 5 Star Movement and League parties won a combined majority of the youth vote and now run the show. In Spain, 40% of voters under 35 are, according to polls, leaning towards the far-left party Podemos and its political allies. In Greece, more than 41% of those age 18 to 24 voted for far-left Syriza in the 2015 election.

As for Germany, which looks great by comparison, keep in mind that a big part of its economic outperformance is due to other EU countries borrowing huge amounts of money to buy German exports. When the latter run out of money – a point which is clearly coming – Germany suffers twice, once when it loses important customers and again when its banks, having lent trillions of euros to Italy, Spain, et al, have to eat those losses.

But bad-mouthing Europe should not be seen as implicit praise of the US. We, like Germany, have an advantage that’s both unfair and temporary. Where Germany has trading partners willing to borrow big to buy Mercedes and Beemers, the US has the world’s reserve currency, which acts as an unlimited credit card for our entitlement state and military/industrial empire. Slightly different scams, same eventual result: the credit spigot gets turned off and all hell breaks loose.

 

Emigrate While You Still Can

13 thoughts on "Failed States, Part 1: Hopeless European Millennials And The Populist Takeover"

  1. This article is all wrong on facts.
    1. European states are not going into debt massively to afford public spending. Most European states have less than half the ratio of government tax revenue/government debt that the USA has.
    2. In the US it is particularly the high costs of scams in medical care and higher education that are burdening the middle class, not the borrowed spending in Europe that is financing utopian welfare.
    3. The drop in fertility rates has nothing to do with the economic crisis. It is still the true that the poorer people are, the more children. This is a trend that was long in place before the GFC. This is like claiming suicides are the result of economic conditions, but people in terribly poor countries are not comitting suicide at higher rates, often the contrary is true.
    4. Structural unemployment is increasingly present throughout the Western world, including the USA. There are many reasons for this, but the trend has been established since the early 80’s, not matter what the government statistics say.
    5. If you want to find egregious examples of overly generous pensions, look at teachers in the USA or other “public servants”. Most pension schemes and salaries for labour are modest in Europe.
    6. You cannot just compare statistics. A larger proportion of 25-55 year old men are working full-time in France than in the US, despite the disparity in unemployment statistics. Trying to collect dole in many town in countries like Germany and Holland means having municipal agencies calling you at six in the morning with a day of work at a nearby warehouse, or some such thing.

  2. yeh some interesting points but bias against Europe from the US as usual.
    Funny how Americans feel they know everything that is going on in Europe when no European would dare to claim the reverse.

    1. I see your point, but this series isn’t meant to be anti-whatever country is profiled, but anti-debt. Remember that it appears on “DollarCollapse.com” which by
      definition is a criticism of American economic policy. Next up in the series is Latin America, where a new state is failing every few weeks lately. Then several US states like Illinois and New Jersey that are going the way of Italy — all for the same reason, an inability to live within their means.

      1. Its not a European thing debt and negative millennial opportunities: Its a Western thing. Eurpoe has been closely aligned to the US since WW2 so to call it a ‘European’ problem is just nonsense. Same with immigration. The ignoramus/genius Trump just deflects attention by pointing to Merkel’s problems with mass immigration from incompatible cultures when the USA has been doing this for years.

    2. That is just pure nonsense – European are some of the most arrogant opinionated people on the planet. I lived there for years and sat on numerous pan-european committees that met all over Europe. And their media loves attacking the US in their biased journalism and opinion columns. Nonsense.

      Besides how else do you have elitists that forces destabilizing mass immigrant mostly unskilled, illiterate and demanding welfare benefits onto its populous struggling with the economic woes discussed above? Forced immigration is a big source of the populism.

      (Oh and PS many like Trump.)

      1. Europeans have seen it done it (when did the USA last see a real war?) and have that experience of different cultures for better or worse. Americans generally are good at being Americans but known nothing how other cultures tick.

        Trump is doing a good job at scaling back the US empire which was probably a historical inevitability anyway. Otherwise his tariff policies may or may not come off. He asks why don’t more people buy American cars? Is it because they are sh**?!

          1. no logic to your argument. Just name-calling.
            Trump is the biggest threat to Western unity and thus prosperity- will the Americans do anything about him? Probably not.

          2. Name calling? LOL Your post was uninformed biased nonsense.
            Your are entitled to your opinions but not the facts.
            Your opinions appear to be based on nonfactual biases that you have.

  3. The US, if they could remotely be honest might match some of these charts.
    The real unemployment, or part-time is not what we are told. Student loans keep kids living at home, often under employed or un employed.

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