Why europe is doomed

[Doggy Styles]

Say his name three times and Candyman shall appear...

Make three cretinous (sic) statements in the same thread and sasguru shall appear...

[AtW]

I will of course be taking a cut

Not under my brutal but fair regime you won't!

[Mich the Tester]

At the moment there is little democracy in Europe. Both Italy and Greece have German appointed overseers.

And the Italian appointed overseer's doing a much better job than the last 'democratically elected' PM. Or, well, a less crappy job.

[EternalOptimist]

Why Europe Is Doomed To Decline - 13/06/2012

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury" -- anonymous

Absolutely true this - There is a constant stream of groups with their hands out and an opposition screaming about every cut that pushes all governments into a short term borrow and spend cycle to cling to power. Any attempt to avoid this and you just get bounced out for the mob who say they will keep the handouts coming.
All the time while giving people the illusion of freedom.
Maybe the chinese have the right idea after all....

thats it then. it's all over for Democracy.

'The Worst form of governent, apart from all the rest' - W.S.Churchill

'Incompetents voted in by the non-productive, so the non-productives can be paid benefits by stealing money from the diminishing number of productives' - W.S.Optimist

[amcdonald]

Why not just go back to a soviet style planned economy?

Because the nations productivity would decline to sub British Leyland levels, as there would be no incentive to work hard

[Mich the Tester]

'Incompetents voted in by the non-productive, so the non-productives can be paid benefits by stealing money from the diminishing number of productives' - W.S.Optimist

I think you're missing something here. IMHO Europe's economy isn't really troubled by the 'unproductives'; we can afford to pay useless people to stay at home and not go out hassling and hindering other people. What we can't afford is the growing army of anti-productive people to be found in government, quangos AND (usually large) businesses; people who don't actually take part in making or selling some product or service, but who are employed to get in the way. Look at the legion of inspectors, box tickers, jobsworths, assorted 'quality analysts' etc who do nothing other than write reports and draw graphs, or the legion of middle managers who don't talk to real clients, don't explain things to shareholders, don't actually lead a team of productive people, but busy themselves with process charts, quality systems, compliance and so on and very often just turn up among a group of developers or testers and confuse matters by demanding some nonsense report my this morning. Just look around you at clientco or look at the organisation chart and ask yourself what all those people actually contribute to making something profitable or useful.

Somewhere that delicate balance of chiefs and indians has been lost and economies will really only recover when that balance is restored.

[petergriffin]

And the Italian appointed overseer's doing a much better job than the last 'democratically elected' PM. Or, well, a less crappy job.

It looks like the Italian debt has increased with the new government.
Battling Italy's debt costs to spike at auction | Reuters

Come back, evil Silvio, all is forgiven, and bring along some teenage stripper!

[EternalOptimist]

Somewhere that delicate balance of chiefs and indians has been lost and economies will really only recover when that balance is restored.

I think he was talking about democracy rather than the economy

[BrilloPad]

I rest my case

The rest of us wish you would.

[Mich the Tester]

I think he was talking about democracy rather than the economy

Democracy has the same problem; too many governments. We have local councils, county councils (or provincial governments), national governments, supranational governments, all with their regulators, inspectors, tax collectors and so on, all working against each other with no interaction or coordination at all. Too much government.