Tale of two continents and currencies

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Kan natuurlijk ook zijn dat de Amerikanen en Canadezen 'servitude'
accepteren?
Het lijkt me in ieder geval _te_gemakkelijk_ om dit geheel op de 'harde
werker-niet harde werker' toer te gooien.

Natuurlijk zijn er verschillen tussen Noord en Zuid, zowel in de EU als
in de USA. Maar volgens mij heeft dat meer te maken met aanpassingen aan
klimaat dan met wat dan ook.

Daarmee wil ik niet gezegd hebben dat 'met pensioen gaan' op je 42e of
daaromtrent normaal is. Ik geloof dat het _ook_ in Griekenland niet
normaal is. En ik geloof ook niet dat alle havenwerkers in Griekenland
tonnen per jaar verdienen.

Groet / Cees

U.S. beats out EU
By Diane Francis  May 11, 2010 – 3:12 pm
Reuters

Thugs act out against banks and capitalism in Europe

This is a tale of two continents and currencies.

Greece exploded in violence because many of its citizens object to
paying the past-due bills for the “party” they call a country.

Meanwhile, the systemically violent United States has handled the end to
its “party” — nearly three million families thrown out of homes they
couldn’t afford — without a single rubber bullet or squadron of riot police.

They do share plenty of voter anger in both places, and everywhere for
that matter, but these crises point to a new, under-appreciated
competitive advantage that the Americans may possess.

Namely, they (and Canadians too) mostly accept hard work as a value and
failure or financial setbacks as an outcome that must occasionally be
dealt with.

Nobody in the U.S. or Canada likes adversity or political incompetence.
But nobody has killed bank employees or manned barricades to fight for
the right to a 32-hour work week and retirement at 53 years of age.

The violence is not restricted to Greece either. Apparently, the threat
of more thugs doing harm in equally spoiled-brat countries, Spain and
Portugal, helped propel the third trillion-dollar bailout on the weekend.

(First was the Wall Street bailout, then the emerging nations bailout
and now this.)

So what’s next is going to prove interesting.

The Greeks, Spanish and others had better learn how to work like the
Germans and Americans or they will never dig out. The problem is with
attitudes like their youth, unions and civil service have displayed this
is unlikely.

Better to sell off the islands in the Aegean or Mediterranean beach
front as a German politician suggested last week.

The American mess has spawned a non-violent Tea Party movement and it is
going around electorally decapitating moderate Republicans, splitting
the right-of-center. The good news is that it will serve to modulate
taxation going forward which will be a indirect brake on spending and
borrowing. Or so one hopes.

Meanwhile in the European Union, the brats have won and it remains to be
seen whether their nanny-states will raise taxes, curb spending and
force their workers to work. Or whether they will just live off others
and wait for bail out 4. Go long US$, not the Euro.

Read more:
http://opinion.financialpost.com/2010/05/11/us-beats-out-eu/#ixzz0nuDY3h5E

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