CBC News - World - Are we all facing a Greek-style future?

CBC News - World - Are we all facing a Greek-style future?

Neil Macdonald

"European states run famously costly social cradle-to-grave social programs, which basically rely on each new generation to support the one that just retired, and in remarkably generous style, compared to the U.S. or even Canada.

The trouble is, the European generation about to enter the workforce is much smaller and its workers will be groaning under the burden of servicing all that government debt.

You don't have to be John Kenneth Galbraith to figure out what's going to happen over there next: slashed pensions, medical care and services. A systemic collapse of the European nanny state.

Imagine the Greek riots, but, oh, say a hundred times worse."

(mjd) Now... to things on this side of the puddle...

"The Americans don't count unfunded liabilities when they calculate their national debt. Things like public pensions, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, which are about to face a stampede of aging, retiring baby boomers.

By most estimates, the bills that will be arriving in Washington for the next few decades will total more than a hundred trillion dollars — several times the size of the entire American economy. Unpayable, by any realistic measure.

In other words, Americans are driving toward the debt wall in an out-of-control Toyota, too. And given the realities of the North American economy, they will be dragging Canadians right along behind them."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/10/f-rfa-macdonald.html#ixzz0neQtAO7v