Re: French politics

John Larkin wrote:

On Mon, 07 May 2007 16:47:39 GMT, Joerg
<notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Eeyore wrote:


Joerg wrote:



Eeyore wrote:


John Larkin wrote:



Europe's economy...... sure needs a kick in the ***.

Why exactly ?


Take a look at the unemployment numbers.


We're doing fine here.


In the UK maybe. Isn't it around 6%? That would be ok but not exactly "fine" IMHO. However, John was talking about Europe and not just the UK.


Is the UK in Europe? They can't seem to really make up their minds,
which is understandable.

The UK and Ireland seem to be doing very well lately. France, Germany,
and Spain less well, with possibly bad demographics looming. But
modern economies are so productive that nobody in Europe is going to
go hungry or anything radical.


Not hungry but some countries have already had to put a crimp into some "social achievements". Health care, welfare etc. A society can somehow support 10% unemployment but if it goes much beyond that the system quickly becomes stretched to the limits.

They could be a lot more productive if they would stop considering engineers over 45 geezers, and then lament about an engineer shortage that in reality doesn't exist. My layouter is certainly marching onto 60 by now yet he just finished a stellar job. That was after midnight yesterday. He cranked 20 hours on Saturday and finished about a week ahead of schedule. I wouldn't be surprised if this guy would still pull that off when he's 80. Oh, and the (very active) CEO of one of my clients had celebrated his 80th many moons ago.



AFAIK the unemployment numbers in many continental European countries are hovering above 10%. That's quite worrisome.

Chart 6 in this study might also cause quite a bit of concern for the UK if I understand it right:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~blnchflr/papers/speeches/qb070118.pdf

Where is the hope for your kids?


The european solution is simple: don't have kids!

John



--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
.