Este ensaio de Paul Krugman no New York Times sobre a crise na União Europeia é muito certeiro e está cheio de ideias interessantes. Apesar de longo vale bem a pena ler até ao fim.
Destaco a passagem da comparação com os EUA. Quem já viajou pelos EUA sabe do que Krugman está a falar. Dá-se de caras com uma miséria chocante de que já perdemos a memória na Europa. Muitos jovens sem tecto e velhinhos sem reforma a dormir em jardins ao fim de uma vida de trabalho em que alguns acumulavam dois empregos.
"Not long ago Europeans could, with considerable justification, say that the current economic crisis was actually demonstrating the advantages of their economic and social model. Like the United States, Europe suffered a severe slump in the wake of the global financial meltdown; but the human costs of that slump seemed far less in Europe than in America. In much of Europe, rules governing worker firing helped limit job loss, while strong social-welfare programs ensured that even the jobless retained their health care and received a basic income. Europe’s gross domestic product might have fallen as much as ours, but the Europeans weren’t suffering anything like the same amount of misery. And the truth is that they still aren’t.
(...) The Europeans have shown us that peace and unity can be brought to a region with a history of violence, and in the process they have created perhaps the most decent societies in human history, combining democracy and human rights with a level of individual economic security that America comes nowhere close to matching."
Destaco a passagem da comparação com os EUA. Quem já viajou pelos EUA sabe do que Krugman está a falar. Dá-se de caras com uma miséria chocante de que já perdemos a memória na Europa. Muitos jovens sem tecto e velhinhos sem reforma a dormir em jardins ao fim de uma vida de trabalho em que alguns acumulavam dois empregos.
"Not long ago Europeans could, with considerable justification, say that the current economic crisis was actually demonstrating the advantages of their economic and social model. Like the United States, Europe suffered a severe slump in the wake of the global financial meltdown; but the human costs of that slump seemed far less in Europe than in America. In much of Europe, rules governing worker firing helped limit job loss, while strong social-welfare programs ensured that even the jobless retained their health care and received a basic income. Europe’s gross domestic product might have fallen as much as ours, but the Europeans weren’t suffering anything like the same amount of misery. And the truth is that they still aren’t.
(...) The Europeans have shown us that peace and unity can be brought to a region with a history of violence, and in the process they have created perhaps the most decent societies in human history, combining democracy and human rights with a level of individual economic security that America comes nowhere close to matching."
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2 comentários :
Parece um daqueles artigos em que, distorcido pela distância, se diz sempre bem daquilo que acontece alhures.
Na Europa há muita gente que acha que os EUA são o paraíso. Nos EUA há muita gente que pensa que a Europa é o paraíso.
Mas no "campeonato da miséria", eles ganham. Se não visse com os meus próprios olhos provavelmente concordaria contigo.
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