World is in danger of entering a new Dark Age, the Age of Austerity

[Meatpie]

The entire Western World is sinking deeper into the worst economic depression in history with most countries running monster public debts, facing "cuts", austerity "packages" and bailout funds which only work for a couple of months before a new grand "plan" is needed.

Let's face it. There are deep rifts between EU nations and the euro seems dommed.

Europe will be torn apart because unlike the US we don't have a single fiscal policy and internal migration is harder.

The Franco-German split over bailout continues and even if President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and German Chancellor Angela Merkel reach a deal Europe is faced with an Age of Austerity.

I am very interested to hear from our members in the US as I am not as familiar with the situation there and will refrain from comment but from what I read in the papers here the US is not doing well either.

 

[slitneck1]

In many ways the EU and US are similar in that both have lived beyond their means for some time and have racked up sizable debt. Sort of like going on a credit card binge and finally the bill arrives in the mail. Unemployment continues high but that depends on which state you are in, for example I live in the state of NH where unemployment is just over 5% which is not too bad, but some places like Nevada and Michigan have rates over 10%. In my opinion our biggest issue here is that politically we are polarized and little gets done in Washington. Unless that is remedied this economic downtown and high debt probably keeps going for longer than it should. But in the long run things will probably work themselves out although it will be painful for a few years while we pay off our credit binge.

The the EU and US need to figure out a way to be more competitive in a world that neither controls anymore.

wow, that was deep

 

[mxboots888]

Ditto! LOL

 

[feettartar]

In many ways the EU and US are similar in that both have lived beyond their means for some time and have racked up sizable debt. Sort of like going on a credit card binge and finally the bill arrives in the mail. Unemployment continues high but that depends on which state you are in, for example I live in the state of NH where unemployment is just over 5% which is not too bad, but some places like Nevada and Michigan have rates over 10%. In my opinion our biggest issue here is that politically we are polarized and little gets done in Washington. Unless that is remedied this economic downtown and high debt probably keeps going for longer than it should. But in the long run things will probably work themselves out although it will be painful for a few years while we pay off our credit binge.

The the EU and US need to figure out a way to be more competitive in a world that neither controls anymore.

wow, that was deep

the unemployment rate in US is way, WAY over 10% - the govt fails (for the obvious reason) to mention the tons of people that exhaust their benefits then fall by the wayside - and this doen't include the TONS AND TONS of people on continuous wellfare (trust me - i'm a landlord).
i have a graph of the world's population curve i think many here would be most interested in seeing, but can't post it - if someone wants to IM me and post it for me, i'll do that.

 

[deaddirty]

From what I know about US, I reckon slitneck has got it spot on - thanks for the post!
Ultimately population increase is probably the biggest problem - but that's a world problem, will hit US and europe like veryone else, but not centred with uis.