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  • Europe on the precipice of collapse?

    Europe's social model Europe’s Ailing Social Model: Facts & Fairy-Tales
    From the desk of Martin De Vlieghere on Thu, 2006-03-23 08:43
    This article was written by Martin De Vlieghere and Paul Vreymans of the Flemish think tank Work for All.

    On 23 and 24 March the European Council is meeting to discuss the future of Europe’s social model. The very essence of the welfare state is at stake. Europe’s present social model is unable to tackle the modern challenges of globalization, and has left Europe with gigantic problems: an unsurmountable public debt, a rapidly ageing population, 19 million unemployed, and an overall youth unemployment rate of 18%. The unemployment figures may easily be doubled to account for hidden unemployment. The untold reality is that Europe’s real unemployment stands at the level of the 1932 Depression.

    A man-made Disaster

    Europe’s social disaster is unfolding while the rest of the world is booming at its fastest rate in three decades. 2004 and 2005 were record years for China and India, which have double-digit growth rates, and for the USA, which fully enjoys the benefits of globalization. The world’s economy is booming at an average rate of over 4%, but Europe’s growth has stagnated at an inflated 1.5%.

    Why is Europe performing so poorly? Europe’s deficient performance is incompatible with its huge potential as the world’s largest single consumer market. Its slow growth contradicts its unequalled industrial productivity and infrastructure, its outstanding education level and labour ethics, its favourable climate, “fair business” morality, and not in the least its tremendous potential provided by the opening of the iron curtain. Obviously Europe’s fairy-tale is not materializing. Nor are the inflated expectations prognosticated by Europe’s political elite at the launch of the Common Currency and the Lisbon Agenda.

    Deficit Spending & Threatening Debt Crisis

    The reality of Europe’s ailing economy contrasts sharply with its economic potential and with the massive resources employed to cure its ailing growth. The whole arsenal of Keynesian remedies has now been tried and has failed one by one. Massive deficit spending throughout the eighties and nineties has left Europe with a public debt unequalled in history. The size of Europe's monumental public debt is only surpassed by the hidden liabilities accumulated in Europe’s shortsighted pay-as-you-go public pension schemes.

    Unfunded pension liabilities now average some 285% of GDP [pdf], more than 4 times the officially published public debt figures. Total public liabilities now exceed assets in most EU countries, and are causing runaway debt service. Richard Disney calculates [pdf] that if social policies are kept unchanged, tax hikes of as much as 5 to 15 percentage points will be necessary over the next couple of decades merely to avoid the rate of indebtedness increasing any further.

    Unfortunately, this will just kill growth completely. Europe’s present social model is unsustainable because it is based on robbery of future generations. Keeping the system in place would jeopardize the next generation’s future with an unbearable and uncompressible tax burden, and would seriously add to the risk of a total collapse of Europe. Moreover these expansionary social policies have not worked so far. In spite of the largest debt buildup in history Europe’s growth has remained weak anyway. Europe’s social model is built largely on credit to be paid back by its own children.

    ECB Money Printing & Runaway Asset Inflation

    The ECB’s expansionary monetary policy has failed as well. M3 money growth has been exceeding the real economic growth rate by an average 5% ever since the Euro was launched. Real Euro interest rates have been negative for several years now. The only obvious effect has been run-away asset inflation and an unprecedented speculative bubble. Today Europe’s bond prices have reached historical highs, and Euro-stocks’ earning ratios are at historical lows. Prices of building plots in Belgium have doubled and even tripled in some areas. In Brussels apartment prices rose by 50% over the last 12 months, driving many native Belgians out of their hometown because living in Brussels has progressively become an exclusivity affordable only for Europe’s privileged bureaucrats.

    Obviously the Keynesian expansionary strategies are not working and the ECB’s money printing is only making things worse. Present policies are leading to an Argentinean-style debt crisis. The challenges of globalization and Europe’s rapidly ageing population call for an urgent fundamental policy change. The 19 million unemployed (that is the official figure, but 38 million is closer to the truth) no longer believe Europe’s “social” fairy tales and can no longer wait.

    Faked Public Debate

    In an effort to keep the dancing on the Titanic going, Europe’s catastrophic situation is systematically hidden from public opinion. Official unemployment data, debt figures, and poor growth performance are systematically and grossly underestimated. Thus the public debate and the whole democratic decision making process is being falsified by lies and wishful thinking. Even the best policy makers are making the wrong diagnosis based on the wrong statistics, and as a consequence prescribe the wrong remedies. Having accumulated such monumental debt through years of over-consumption, Europe can indeed no longer blame its ailing growth on slow consumer sales. It is the supply side that is failing. Policies aimed at boosting Europe's economy should therefore no longer be aimed at stimulating consumption but at stimulating the defaulting creation of wealth.

    Bureaucracy & A Crippling Tax Burden

    Europe’s production is failing because of bureaucracy and a paralytic tax burden. The reality on Europe’s work floor is that the workforce is demotivated, and that Europe’s personnel and managers are increasingly rebelling against the persistent confiscation of over 50% of the fruit of their labour. The excessive tax burden leaves Europe’s workforce too little to lead the standard of living they earn. Businesses are deprived of the resources needed to finance their innovative projects and to compete in the global markets, if foreign entities have not yet bought their assets.

    Europe’s well-intentioned model is not working because it does not pay to work after the taxman has taken his share. Europe is not innovating because it does not pay to innovate after the huge costs of complying with all the prescriptions, limitations and restrictions in all Europe's overabundant licences and autorisations. Demoralization is the real cause of Europe’s stagnation. Europe’s workforce is tired of being incessantly hindered in its task of producing wealth. Demoralization is the reasen why ever more engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs flee Europe’s tax misery. Paradoxically, the Old Europe of the West must now learn from the New Europe of the East, where after years of disastrous socialism, low and simple flat taxes are being introduced, luring investors from all over the world.

    Scientific Evidence

    In his research into the causes of growth differences between OECD economies the American economist James Gwartney irrefutably demonstrated [pdf] the direct relation between tax burden and economic growth. The higher the level of taxation, the lower the growth rate. The explanation is as logical as it is simple. The higher the tax level, the lower the incentives to make productive contributions to society. The higher the fiscal burden, the more resources flow from the productive sector to the ever more inefficient government apparatus.

    Gwartney’s findings provide the final explanation why continental European economies, such as Belgium, no longer grow. The Belgian tax burden is 20% above the optimal tax level burden as calculated by Primo Pevcin [pdf]. It is 9 %-points above the OECD average and 15 %-points higher than the tax level in the US and Japan.

    WorkForAll’s empirical study analyzing 25 plausible causes of economic growth in a comprehensive regression arrives at the same conclusions. The best way to spur growth is by reducing the tax burden and Europe’s languishing government sector, and by shifting taxes from income to consumption.

    Adapting Europe’s Tax Structure for Globalization

    With an excess proportion of direct taxes, Europe’s tax structure is totally unadapted to globalization. Direct taxes on profits, wages and capital increase the cost of domestic production, and in doing so have exactly the opposite effect of import duties. Direct taxes roughly double the cost of Europe’s domestic production, making Europe’s produce uncompetitive both in the home market and in global markets. Just as import duties cause protectionist distortions in world trade, direct taxes do the same, but in the absurd opposite sense. Globalisation therefore necessitates more urgently than ever a shift of the tax burden from production to consumption.

    It is, indeed, a direct result of the trade distortions caused by direct taxation that is causing Western Europe to losing ever more rapidly its semi labour-intensive sectors to countries where productivity is lower than in Western Europe. This relocation from countries with high productivity to low productivity countries is a pure waste. It is not only disastrous for Western Europe’s employment. It is also harming worldwide development as Europe’s highly productive production apparatus and infrastructure are left idle. With Europe’s potential not being used to capacity, the direct-tax distortions are leading to less than optimal global labour division and wealth creation.

    The success-story of the Irish alternative

    Europe will only be able to maintain its prosperity and generous social system if it succeeds in generating a growth rate of 4 to 5% over the next couple of decades. This is not impossible. Ireland has shown us how to do it. The Irish economy has been booming at an annual growth rate of over 5.6% for over 20 years now. In barely 18 years Ireland has made the unbelievable jump from the 22nd to the 4th place in the OECD prosperity ranking.

    Ireland thanks its success to its clear-cut different tax policy. With 33%, the Irish overall tax burden is the most moderate of Europe. Ireland also has a unique fair-flat-tax structure, which fairly and evenly spreads the weight of the tax burden over profits, labour and consumption. This unique tax structure is the key to Ireland’s success. Contrary to the rest of Europe’s demoralizing tax structure, the Irish tax model provides a positive stimulus to participation, saving, investment and enterprise: the crucial factors which the rest of Europe lacks.

    For 20 years now, the Irish social model has proven its effectiveness not only in creating wealth and jobs, but also in providing Irish authorities with ample resources for their wide range of cultural, environmental and social initiatives, as well as for the costs of ageing. The unequalled Irish success story proves that their alternative policies are reliable and realistically feasible within the current European framework.

    Scandinavian Myths

    Despite the overwhelming success of the Irish alternative, adepts of large state interference continue to plead in favor of a Scandinavian model. Nonetheless the outdated Scandinavian policies have proved to be particularly inefficient. The Scandinavian countries have gone through a long period of steady decline with poor growth and job creation. In 1970, Sweden’s level of prosperity was one quarter above Belgium’s. By 2003 Sweden had fallen to 14th place from 5th in the prosperity index, two places behind Belgium. According to OECD figures, Denmark was the 3rd most prosperous economy in the world in 1970, immediately after Switzerland and the United States. In 2003, Denmark was 7th. Finland did badly as well. From 1989 to 2003, while Ireland rose from 21st to 4th place, Finland fell from 9th to 15th place.

    Together with Italy, the Scandinavian countries are the worst performing economies in the entire European Union. Rather than taking them as an example, Europe’s politicians should shun the Scandinavian big-government recipes. If there is anything to be learnt from the Scandinavian experience it is that Scandinavia succeeds in making a more efficient use of public resources, through investment and innovation. Nevertheless even their most restrictive unemployment policies will never result in higher growth so long as they keep their Keynesian policies and excessive government in place. The best proof of the failure of the Scandinavian model may be that the Scandinavian countries themselves are increaslingly abandoning it.

    EU Tax Harmonization

    Europe’s many high-tax and very-high-tax regimes view Ireland’s success with envy. They fear that less greedy and more efficient governments will develop Irish style reconstruction initiatives. Such a trend could lead to “tax competition” which would force them to improve their own public efficiency. In contradiction of all EU-Treaties guaranteeing full autonomy in fiscal affairs to the member-states, Europe’s high-tax regimes are now trying to prevent Irish-type reconstruction initiatives from developing in other countries. Fearing competition from less greedy and more efficient governments they are trying to impose their high-tax-regimes on other EU-members through a new directive.

    In the same sneaky way as the EU’s devastating savings directive was introduced, a tax-base harmonization scheme is now being proposed, obviously as a first step toward imposing a back-door harmonization for corporate tax rates also. Despite the severity of Europe’s high-tax disaster Europe’s high-tax-regimes obviously still refuse to see the unsustainability of their high-spending high-debt high-tax policies. These Keynesian policies have failed.

    Curing the symptoms no longer helps. It is time to tackle the real and ultimate cause of Europe’s stagnation, namely the total discouragement of Europe’s work force. It is time to free Europe from its bureaucracy and its crippling tax burden. Failing this Europe will continue to lag behind ever further and its current relative impoverishment will soon turn into absolute pauperization, ultimately resulting not only in economic, but also in cultural and moral decline. If the economy is sick, it is because democracy is ill as well.

    www.brusselsjournal.com/node/933

  • #2
    Ahh. the socialist economies are failing - are we suprised? I'm not

    Comment


    • #3
      An old friend spent some time in brussels while he was in the intelligence business almost 20 years ago. When I asked him about how things were, all he said was: "We've going to eat these Moron's lunch, and they'll never figure out why." It seems he was right.
      sigpicUSS North Dakota

      Comment


      • #4
        I know why.

        he had a butter cookie sandwich with a side order of fritos.

        I'd have ate it too....

        Comment


        • #5
          The European social-economic model, isn't just about getting richer (the richer get richer...and the poor...get lost). It protects the weaker, and learns people to SHARE.
          -when a men goes to the hospital, the first thing doctors ask him isn't the number of his credit card.
          -everyone has the right to go school, and then to a descent university. Education is not proportional to your bank account.
          It's not perfect, ok, but it's FAIR.

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Ellopian
            learns people to SHARE.
            No, it forces people to "share".
            Originally posted by Ellopian
            -when a men goes to the hospital, the first thing doctors ask him isn't the number of his credit card.
            If it's a public hospital, and there are tons and tons of them, then not only will the poorest get in, they'll probably get better service.
            Originally posted by Ellopian
            -everyone has the right to go school, and then to a descent university.
            Here you got the first part, but if you want to go to Uni for free, you better be deserving of it. One can still go to local colleges, and junior colleges, as well as trade schools, at limited cost.
            Originally posted by Ellopian
            It's not perfect, ok, but it's FAIR.
            No, actually it's the opposite, it's perfectly unfair. It is not fair to take something from someone in order to give it to someone else. It's economic oppression, heck, it's theft...
            No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
            I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
            even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
            He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Ellopian
              It's not perfect, ok, but it's FAIR.
              It is also WEAK. It means that Europe will have to accept being discounted in world affairs because they will become increasingly poor when compared to the rest of the world. Ultimately, it will mean the same thing will happen to them as happened to the Indians and Chinese over the course of the 19th century (they fell behind, and were then dominated).

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by Ellopian
                The European social-economic model, isn't just about getting richer (the richer get richer...and the poor...get lost). It protects the weaker, and learns people to SHARE.
                -when a men goes to the hospital, the first thing doctors ask him isn't the number of his credit card.
                -everyone has the right to go school, and then to a descent university. Education is not proportional to your bank account.
                It's not perfect, ok, but it's FAIR.
                That's funny, we (New Zealand) have an average growth rate of about 3% over the last 5 years, have a free market, and still manage to have all of the things you mention, except tertiary education, where students are required to pay 5% of the cost.
                In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                Leibniz

                Comment


                • #9
                  I think that we can't agree, cause we have an opposite "philosophy" about how society should be. So there's no point in discussing.. But... concerning public hospitals, i'm sure you've never been in europe, to check-out the quality of hospitals. Are you sure you wanna compare a french p.h. with one in america? I DON'T THINK SO..
                  Everyone knows that poor people in the US are condemned to stay poor, that is why i find it very unfair. Your are poor so you will go to a crap school, you will be treated like crap, and your life will be miserable since you never had the possibility to suceed. Am I wrong???

                  Also, stop saying that Europes economy is going to collapse, you're talking as if we where almost a 3world region. Are you dreaming or what? Who claism that? Rumsfield or Bush, two brilliant american intellectuals?

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Everyone knows that poor people in the US are condemned to stay poor, that is why i find it very unfair. Your are poor so you will go to a crap school, you will be treated like crap, and your life will be miserable since you never had the possibility to suceed. Am I wrong???
                    As opposed to those in the Muslim ghettoes in France, Sweden, Germany...? As opposed to those who are not educated in the elite French academies?

                    You are indeed wrong on that point, and despite the fact that I've never visited the US myself even I can spot a view based on European stereotype.
                    HD Ready?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Ellopian
                      I think that we can't agree, cause we have an opposite "philosophy" about how society should be.
                      Or because I know the meaning of the word "fair".
                      Originally posted by Ellopian
                      concerning public hospitals, i'm sure you've never been in europe, to check-out the quality of hospitals. Are you sure you wanna compare a french p.h. with one in america? I DON'T THINK SO..
                      Me? I have, not in France, but Germany. I've also read the statistics, and they do not show the shining light you seem to see. Just the lack of diagnostic equipment, the waiting lists to see doctors, that occur in most European countries does it for me. Either way it's still the same thing, both of us have socialized medicine, we just have other options too.
                      Originally posted by Ellopian
                      Everyone knows that poor people in the US are condemned to stay poor, that is why i find it very unfair. Your are poor so you will go to a crap school, you will be treated like crap, and your life will be miserable since you never had the possibility to suceed. Am I wrong???
                      You should tell that to Bill Gates, he'll think that is really funny.
                      Originally posted by Ellopian
                      Rumsfield or Bush, two brilliant american intellectuals?
                      Both of them are doing a lot better than you are, so what does that say about you? LOL
                      No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                      I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                      even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                      He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Confed999
                        Or because I know the meaning of the word "fair".

                        Me? I have, not in France, but Germany. I've also read the statistics, and they do not show the shining light you seem to see. Just the lack of diagnostic equipment, the waiting lists to see doctors, that occur in most European countries does it for me. Either way it's still the same thing, both of us have socialized medicine, we just have other options too.

                        You should tell that to Bill Gates, he'll think that is really funny.

                        Both of them are doing a lot better than you are, so what does that say about you? LOL
                        Bill Gates is an exception, u can't hide social problems behind Gates or racial probs behind T.Woods.
                        Anyway, the statistics concerning hospitals and education... do u have them, or its fake? Where are they? I'm talking about public institutions, US have better health care than France? SINCE WHEN MAN?

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Ellopian
                          Bill Gates is an exception
                          Ok, tell Condi Rice instead. She'll think it's funny too. I can do this all day.
                          Originally posted by Ellopian
                          Anyway, the statistics concerning hospitals and education... do u have them, or its fake? Where are they?
                          I'm not sure what educational statistics you're looking for, but the health care statistics are in threads on this board. ;)
                          Originally posted by Ellopian
                          US have better health care than France? SINCE WHEN MAN?
                          Do you guys have waiting periods to see a doctor? Do you have as many MRIs as say Arizona? If you don't have waiting periods, and can get an MRI next day, then my comments about "most European countries" would not apply, would they?
                          No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                          I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                          even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                          He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by Ellopian
                            I think that we can't agree, cause we have an opposite "philosophy" about how society should be. So there's no point in discussing.. But... concerning public hospitals, i'm sure you've never been in europe, to check-out the quality of hospitals. Are you sure you wanna compare a french p.h. with one in america? I DON'T THINK SO..

                            Elekta receives orders for Leksell Gamma Knife® in the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan and France valued at SEK 315 million

                            Stockholm 27 May 2003

                            Elekta has signed agreements to deliver Leksell Gamma Knife® equipment to the U.S., Japan, China, Taiwan and France. The agreements include 11 new Leksell Gamma Knife® units and a number of upgrades and reloads of existing installations. The agreements were signed during the fourth quarter, February-April, fiscal year 2002/03. The total order value is approximately SEK 315 million. The deliveries are planned for fiscal years 2003/04 and 2004/05.

                            ”The order bookings of Leksell Gamma Knife® are seasonally strong during our fourth quarter and so even this year”, says Tomas Puusepp, responsible for Elekta’s sales, marketing and service.

                            ” We are especially pleased that France has now ordered its second Leksell Gamma Knife® unit. It will be installed in Lille and is the first order after the recent approval from the French health authorities of radiosurgery treatment with Leksell Gamma Knife®”, concludes Tomas Puusepp.

                            http://www.elekta.com/corporate.nsf/...ek_315_million

                            So France got its second gamma knife in 2003? At that time here in Oklahoma ( ) we had one up and running and a second under construction. And while your waxing lyrical about the French healthcare system, maybe you'd like to coment about this:

                            "Two years after minor French officials were jailed for knowingly distributing blood contaminated with H.I.V., the scandal reached a political level today when a former Prime Minister was placed under judicial investigation as an purported accomplice to poisoning.

                            The official, Laurent Fabius, headed a Socialist Government when some 1,250 hemophiliacs were infected in 1985 by blood tainted with H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. He has denied any responsibility, asserting that he ordered compulsory screening of blood stocks for the virus as soon as he knew tests were available.

                            But his appearance in court today nonetheless marked an important victory for hemophiliac associations and relatives of victims who have been arguing that the four officials charged in the case in 1992 were scapegoats for those with political responsibility in the mid-1980's.

                            As Mr. Fabius left a Paris court today, he was met by angry shouts from relatives of victims. "You have blood on your hands, Fabius," cried the mother of a hemophiliac child now infected with the virus. "Don't you mind?" Some 400 hemophiliacs have so far died as a result of contaminated transfusions.

                            Earlier this week, two former members of Mr. Fabius's Cabinet -- former Social Affairs Minister Georgina Dufoix and former Health Minister Edmond Herve -- were also placed under judicial investigation in the case. They too have denied prior knowledge that infected blood was being distributed.

                            "To imagine that ministers willfully poisoned in the exercise of their functions is unthinkable to me," Mrs. Dufoix told reporters after her hearing. "It is true that in 1985 we did not know what AIDS really was. It is easy to say, but it must be proved. That is what I will try to do."

                            But the report of an independent investigator as well as evidence presented in civil actions brought by relatives of victims have suggested that the Government delayed screening blood for H.I.V. until a French test was ready to be marketed even though an American test was already available.

                            When the scandal first broke in 1991, Cabinet ministers were immune from prosecution for crimes committed while in office. But, in response to public indignation, President Francois Mitterrand promoted a new law creating a Court of Justice of the Republic with powers to try former office-holders.

                            Even though the three former Socialist officials are now formally under investigation, it will be up to investigating magistrates to decide whether they should be prosecuted. In theory, they could face up to 30 years' imprisonment if found guilty of being accomplices to poisoning.

                            Already, though, the scandal may have destroyed Mr. Fabius's political career. Prime Minister between July 1984 and March 1986, he was France's youngest-ever chief of Government and was often mentioned as a possible successor to Mr. Mitterrand. Last year, after the Socialists were drubbed in parliamentary elections, he was forced to step down as party leader.

                            He is still a member of the National Assembly and today he vowed to clear his name. "I go into this inquiry with much compassion for those who fell ill and their families and strongly determined to establish the truth," he told reporters outside the court."

                            http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpag...53C1A962958260
                            The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right.
                            Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight.
                            - The Eagles

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              More on the glories of French healthcare:

                              France heat wave death toll set at 14,802
                              PARIS (AP) — The death toll in France from August's blistering heat wave has reached nearly 15,000, according to a government-commissioned report released Thursday, surpassing a prior tally by more than 3,000.

                              Scientists at INSERM, the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, deduced the toll by determining that France had experienced 14,802 more deaths than expected for the month of August.

                              The toll exceeds the prior government count of 11,435, a figure that was based only on deaths in the first two weeks of the month.

                              The new estimate includes deaths from the second half of August, after the record-breaking temperatures of the first half of the month had abated.

                              The bulk of the victims — many of them elderly — died during the height of the heat wave, which brought suffocating temperatures of up to 104 degrees in a country where air conditioning is rare. Others apparently were greatly weakened during the peak temperatures but did not die until days later.

                              The new estimate comes a day after the French Parliament released a harshly worded report blaming the deaths on a complex health system, widespread failure among agencies and health services to coordinate efforts, and chronically insufficient care for the elderly.

                              Two INSERM researchers who delivered the report were to continue their analysis of deaths to determine what the actual cause was for the spike in mortality, the Health Ministry said.

                              The researchers, Denis Hemon and Eric Jougla, were also to recommend ways of improving France's warnings system to better manage such heat-related crises in the future.

                              The heat wave swept across much of Europe, but the death toll was far higher in France than in any other country.

                              Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei has ordered a separate special study this month to look into a possible link with vacation schedules after doctors strongly denied allegations their absence put the elderly in danger. The heat wave hit during the August vacation period, when doctors, hospital staff and many others take leave. The results of that study are expected in November.

                              The role of vacations is a touchy subject. The National General Practitioners Union says that only about 20% of general practitioners were away during the heat wave.

                              Other European countries hit by the heat have been slower than France to come out with death tolls, but it's clear they also suffered thousands of deaths.

                              Environmental experts warn that because of climate change, such heat waves are expected to increase in number in coming years, meaning Europe — a continent that historically has enjoyed a temperate climate — will have to make adjustments.

                              http://www.usatoday.com/weather/news...nce-heat_x.htm
                              The more I think about it, ol' Billy was right.
                              Let's kill all the lawyers, kill 'em tonight.
                              - The Eagles

                              Comment

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