Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits | Hacker News Reader

Europeans Fear Crisis Threatens Liberal Benefits

nytimes.com

10 pointscwan8 comments

I would like to make an outlandish suggestion: 10 years of pension / retirement / paid healthcare. Take it whenever you want after the admittedly arbitrary age of 30. After that, you're on your own.

While I could make any number of sarcastic and cutting comments on this, note the tiny bit about Sweden. Many would say they were/are the leading European "lifestyle superpower", but when they found themselves at the brink not too many years ago they drew back and are therefore much better positioned now that the Great Recession is dragging on pretty much everyone.

Yes, but laws about to come into effect in Canada basically halve peoples legal entitlement to disability benefits while keeping their payments the same and removing their ability to get fair arbitration leaving lawsuits the only option.

Yes, Europe has been the superpower in this, but the same effects are happening everywhere, it's just not nearly as good a story.

Isn't this just general political liberal v. libertarian debate about the proper role of the state, not really hacker news?

Well, there's the trends/tipping point issue.

I.e. suppose we accept for the moment the "lifestyle superpower" is a a good thing thesis and ignore the US Free World military hegemony that helped to allow its development (OK for the sake of argument at least for now, given the dissolution of really big existential threats like Nazi Germany and the USSR).

Are such systems sustainable in the medium term? If not, how might they be adjusted, and will any reasonable set of adjustments truly fix them or merely kick the can down the road?

For those asking these questions the Great Recession has been a boon, illustrating Warren Buffet's comment that "When the tide goes out you find out who's been swimming naked."

I don't see how you can separate that from the wider political and economic debates, though. Is, say, finance-based capitalism sustainable in the medium term? If not, how might it be adjusted? Etc. Should people start submitting Paul Krugman pieces here? I just don't think particularly useful discussion is likely to result, apart from the usual two sides squaring off.

"Is, say, finance-based capitalism sustainable in the medium term?"

In a forum nominally dedicated to the subject of angel and VC financed startups, I'd say that's germane as well.

Certainly advocates (at least somewhat) against that thesis are aiming directly at the heart and sinews of angel financing (Dodd's bill with the impossible regulatory regime as well as net worth increases).

Earlier in this decade they finished the run of VC based IPO financing that started in the late 1950s (expensing of stock options and SarBox)....

This crisis will considered a mere precursor to the pensions timebomb coming our way.

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