| some european jobs are moving to asia and elsewhere but a significant amount of jobs are moving to other european states. namely, those in the east, the new EU members - who boast the highest growth rates in the union. the one thing that economists tend to mention, that the media always ignores, is the effect of the euro on the gdp statistic.
EU investment is outpacing america's and for that reason, aside from fundamental macro data, the EU is projected to have higher growth rates in the future while ours are declining for our own self-produced reasons.
you are very right about the problems with europe's welfare programs. their primary problem is the pension system, which i should add is a huge problem here as well. in my opinion, it's meaningless to compare a future deficit of $3 trillion to one of $5 trillion (just using imaginary numbers here). both are incredibly high and would cripple the strongest of economies. i.e. neither is worse than the other. |