The Europeans are angry.
The French want to be able to retire at age 60. The Greeks want absolute job protection. The Germans don't want unemployment benefits reduced, even after a year of full benefits.
And as governments roll out austerity measures in an attempt to reduce debt and avert another financial crisis, citizens have taken to the streets, gumming up public services with nationwide strikes and, in Greece, touching off violent riots.
From the left side of the Atlantic, where Americans work longer hours and receive fewer government benefits, we can only watch and wonder at the headlines.
Do the French really oppose working until they're 62? Are the Spaniards that upset by a 5% temporary pay cut? Or by losing a government check of more than $3,000 for a new baby? After all, they get basically free health care and university educations, along with guaranteed pensions -- benefits that combined would cost an American family tens of thousands of dollars to match.
Are we that far apart?
A U.S. civil servant can retire after 30 years or, in some cases, 20 years, with a guaranteed pension and health care. Often these benefits are quite good, and workers generally accept lower wages than they would receive in the private sector in exchange for this security.In the private sector, Social Security constitutes the primary income for more than 60% of retirees.
A network of federal, state and emergency unemployment insurance provides a cushion in tough times.
But even these programs may be in jeopardy, and they provide a thin net compared with the social blanket that protects Europeans from falling into the kind of poverty that ensnares millions of Americans.
Italy's problems
Italy is running dangerously high deficits. In an effort to slice 25 billion euros (about $31.8 billion) from the federal budget in the next two years, officials have announced plans not only to crack down on tax evasion, which they say costs the government 120 billion euros annually, but to cut 13 billion euros from local government budgets, a move likely to affect hospitals and schools.The government also plans to freeze public-sector pay and jobs, delay some retirements for six months and charge tolls on more roads, including Rome's ring road, familiar to many a tourist.
In response, thousands of Italians hit the streets, demanding to know why middle-class workers must pay for a crisis caused by bankers. It's a hue and cry shared by workers across Europe and in the U.S.
Those laid-off workers in Italy, though, will collect as much as half of their salaries in unemployment, won't lose payments into their pensions and will still be able to walk into a doctor's office or hospital without shelling out a dime. Families will receive maternity and child benefits and have access to public university for less than 1,000 euros a year.
It is a far different scene than the one in which the American worker cannot afford health care, has lost unemployment benefits and cannot afford retraining.
| Sweden | France | Germany | U.K. | Greece | Spain | U.S. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Social programs | 34.3% | 32.5% | 27.9% | 25.7% | 24.6% | 22.4% | 18.5% | |
Government debt | 42.6% | 83.6% | 78.8% | 79.1% | 124.9% | 64.9% | 62.0% |
Sources: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Eurostat and U.S. Congressional Budget Office
The view from here
"Yes, they're cutting back. But if we were to go where they're cutting back to, that would be a huge expansion," said Dean Baker, a co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington, D.C., think tank. "They're cutting back to places that are way beyond where we are."European Union countries spend an average of 27% of their budgets on social programs, compared with 15% in the U.S., according to the European Commission.
"We tend to rank near the bottom. Certainly in health care," Baker said. "And in terms of pensions, we're certainly toward the bottom."
A civil servant in Spain who was recently interviewed by The New York Times talked about adjustments to the household budget her family would have to make this year due to the government's cuts. But what consumed her and her neighbors was not next month's bills but the coming years' quality of life.
"There can be no more illusions about getting help from the state," she said.
A reference point for her fear: America. She and her partner added a common sentiment in Europe: They can't understand a system that doesn't treat health care as a basic human right. "In this aspect, the United States does not seem to be a first-world country," the woman's partner said.
Continued: Buying time, borrowing trouble?