Clashes, water cannon as 100,000+ march in Brussels against austerity (PHOTOS)

[KingWest]

Most young educated people are losing their temper with these protesters. Those lazy protesters think they can enjoy pension rights at the age of 50 etc. They are killing our society and unwilling to accept the necessary reforms. At the moment in Belgium everyone who has not worked a single day in life can enjoy lifelong benefits and free money from the government. This needs to stop ASAP , but those lazy bums are to ignorant to see this.

 

[KingWest]

These strikers are basically socialist/communist bums. The government can't afford to spend so they strike because spending will be cut. Their solution is for the government to increase taxes on the rest of us so spending levels can remain the same, if not increase. I wonder why taxpayers don't strike because they are sick of being taxed to death to pay inflated union wages? Oh that's right they have jobs and don't have time to loot and burn.

You're 100% right. Lazy communist bums.

Im sorry for my bad english, its due to a shortage of time.
Why a redistribution of welfare will not work:

20% of the population owes 80% of the total welfare.

The media has discovered this only recently , but the Italian economist Pareto knew this already at the start of the 20th century.

It is with this thinking that he came up with the 80/20 rule.

Anyway , lets take away everyones money and redistribute everything so everyone has exactly the same amount of property/money.

Yes, that means the lazy guys who have never worked a day have as much money as the hard-working people who worked 80 hours a week to set up a savings penny along the side.

And lets wait another 10 years

And now look once again how much money everyone posseses..

What do you see?

Gosh , yet again 20 % of the population has 80% of the wealth in its hands.

And chances are that even the same 20% ten years ago have these kind of wealth .

Building equity starts first and foremost with the investment of your capital.

An investment in a private company perhaps or possibly an investment in the company of another. Investing . Taking risks …

Give every citizen of the country some money in his hands, and a large part this money will be gone within the month.

What, don’t you believe me?

Most Lotto winners lose there money , within five years of their fortune . We are talking about millions huh!

So these are people who will never own anything.

 

[libertad]

I'm not here to discuss student loans (although having worked on ed. policy with the Dutch Govt, I could). Rest assured, it is not govt loans that make US ed expensive.

Why else are tuition costs rising 25% faster than inflation? Most of them are government owned.

There is more to life, to society than just economics. Mostly, there are just policy options (i.e. politically motivated policy CHOICES).You might do well to learn and think more critically. Check out were US employment has gone and where jobgrowth is.

For entrepreneurs and stockholders, the bottom line is the only thing that matters. This ruthless mentality is what allows businesses to expand, create jobs and grow the economy. All this other idealistic nonsense counts for nothing.

Yeah, the US aversion to unions is well documented (see eg Lipset). NL, for excample, has one of the smallest per capita number of civil servants. And unionism has been declinging in Europe for decades. Update your facts.


Since you already have the answers, why bother debating here?

Again, I am not here to debate policy. Fact is you put a label on a whole segment of society without being knowledgeable, merely on the basis of some footage of a very limited clash between a small group of protestors and police.

I've lived in the US for about a decade, I have the highest available US educational degree, I know the place and I don't agree with you.

I don't know the union percentages are in Europe, but if it is declining then that's good. These anti austerity protests are headed by unions and government employees. At the end of the day these are people demanding an already broke government to keep spending money they don't have.

 

[flamer84]

I don't know the union percentages are in Europe, but if it is declining then that's good. These anti austerity protests are headed by unions and government employees. At the end of the day these are people demanding an already broke government to keep spending money they don't have.

This is it.In here,in the last years only public employees had their wages increased because they strike all the time while the private sector doesn't have that luxury.We actually have to work.

 

[Penguin]

This is it.In here,in the last years only public employees had their wages increased because they strike all the time while the private sector doesn't have that luxury.We actually have to work.

Maybe in your country, certainly not in mine, where wages in the public sector trail those in the private sector and haven't seen similar increase as in private sector (and lagging inflation). It is a FALLACY - certainly in the US and Netherlands - that folks employed by government don't work, it is merely ideological rethoric.

Consider state schools > public employees > your childrens' education
There is far more private funding of (higher) education in the US than any where in Europe (see OECD data)