Comments by "Scott Franco" (@scottfranco1962) on "Into Europe" channel.

  1. You characterize this as a transfer from the young to the old, but seniors paid taxes for this throughout their lives. Is the outcome unequal to income? Sure, but that is government mismanagement of the money. Any reasonable calculation shows that the private sector could have done better with that money. What governments got out of the system, which nobody talks about, is a guarantee that the old won't end up on the welfare rolls, and the street. I am a standard American retiree. I reached full retirement age, filed for social security, and kept on working. The SS money is not enough to live on unless I sell all of my assets. In the meantime, I work, I am perfectly able to, and I both pay into the system as well as get money from it.
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  2. The problem with Italy and Greece and perhaps Spain was they saw integration with the EU as free money, and used it to shore up their finances that were overburdened with too large a government sector. You can hardly blame them for this. This was, in fact, the candy dangled by the EU to get them to join. Then the financial crisis came, and to the PIGS shock, they found out that they would actually have to pay back those loans. The fact is that if the PIGSs were not in the EU, it would be doing much better now. I am not saying that should happen. Germany, of all the EU states, should understand well what is going on. Just as Germany absorbed its eastern side, the EU formed itself by passing out money, in the belief it would pay off in the long run. I still believe it will, but then I am not paying for it.
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