One aspect of the Eurocrisis that has not gotten the attention it deserves is the way it is destroying not just jobs, but the very underpinnings of society. People who took actions that were prudent at the time are increasingly at the mercy of forces beyond their control. And this isn’t a tsunami-type disaster but a man-made one whose severity is worsened by the callous attitudes of the European elites.
Austerity Kills: How the EuroCrisis is Being Used to Break the Social Contract.
The article from which the above passage is excerpted goes on to focus on the rapid deterioration of the Greek healthcare system as one of the dire manifestations of what is happening there now.
For decades I and many I know have viewed western Europe as a model to be
emulated. Developments such as those we are witnessing there now are terribly disheartening.
You may continue the race to the bottom below the squiggle.
Here in the U.S. I see international labor arbitrage enabled by globalization as a principal factor in our own downward spiral. It appeared that at least some countries in Europe had solved or at least achieved a good degree of mitigation as regards this problem.
One difference might lie in the fact that in Europe, the workers receive a greater portion of the value they produce, not only on the job but through social services. In contrast, U.S. workers have seen the surpluses they produce reinvested not at home but in countries such as China where for various reasons, foremost among them, government thuggery in the service of corporate profits, labor costs can be reduced to as much as 50th of what would be the case in the U.S.
I am no expert in these matters but if the above dynamic is indeed one of the root causes of the current problems, then all our social contracts as regards workers’ rights, labor standards and compensation, not to mention meaningful democratic processes, that have been gained through protracted struggle, are at risk.
There is a lot of concern being expressed in the MSM and to some extent here that the Greek left will do something radical (read crazy) that in the end will be even more destructive to the economic interests of the Greek citizens than would occur were they to buckle under to the demands of European (principally German?) demands for austerity in favor of repaying the banks. Versions of the Greek tragedy are happening pretty much everywhere and it would seem a global response that radically restructures global finance and trade compacts would not be amiss.
Otherwise, how much longer before we might well proclaim “We all live in Greece now”, or alternatively, “We all live in China now”?