Figure 1.--

The riots were also political fodder for the police authorities because the Police budget had been cut to an extent that law enforcement had been left without the means to police. Thus the rioting was a god send to the police who also exploited the impact of these events. I am not entirely convinced that the economic ills are social the cause of social policies by European governments. The money paid oout in benefits goes back into the coffers of the government one way or another. Also world Wars have been financed by borrowing which has saddled the future generations with war dept that has taken several generations to pay back. WW1 war dept was finally paid back about 3 years ago. That was 90 years. Government debt is usually acquired by issuing bonds in the money markets and are a traded commodity. The US had a an healthy economy until it bankrolled wars in the middle East and the healthy surplus in its economy was eroded. Likewise in Britain we also played a dominant roll in these wars and are again saddled with War debt. [Note: Opinions are of course a matter of debare. Budget defecits are another matter. Milatary expenses and the Middle East Wars are expensive, but they are only a fraction of the balooning defecits. The major expebditures are welfare spending, And notice that the countries now going bankrupt in Europe (Greece and Portugal) were not even involved in the Middle East.] Social security is not a free service. The money is collected from the salary of every worker and business enterprise at source to pay ones national insurance contribution which provides entitlements in time of economic strife, illness and retirement. The social security has helped to vastly improve the health and well being of the nation. People are living longer and contracting illnesses that are complicated and expensive to heal. The problem seems to be that many people who reach retirement age live much longer than the actuary assessments predicted. It was once often the case that a man who retired at the age 65 lived but a few years afterwards. My experience of this was to work with a guy who died within two years of his retirement. Many others would die long before retirement and never lived to receive their pensions. There is also the problem of retirement insurance -in in the private sector and are extra top up to supplement the Government one. These schemes enjoy receiving he contributions until the day people retire and then the schemes go bankrupt. This has happened to my brother. Industrial pension funds set up to provide pension fund for that companies workers. Again something which is not free and salary contributions are made by the employer and employee. Great idea and the employees in theory could look forward to good pensions in their retirement. The trouble being that few would receive any worthwhile benefit because of the questionable use of the pension funds by the head of the company. The most notorious example of this is Robert Maxwell who took funding for his business enterprises from his company pension funds and the subsequent failure of his companies left his employees with inadequate pension provisions despite their proper provisions for their future retirement. The riots in England was designed by criminals to have a battle with the police and to go on a gigantic stealing spree. It was nothing more than criminal activity organised through social networking groups. 'Come out tonight for a fun and free stuff!' The rioters in Manchester left designer clothes shops untouched robbed mobile phone shops and a discount store in which all the products sell for a £1! It was not worth breaking the window for! Your article was first class and raised many issues of attitudes to the way parts of society view the role of advertising and work. Unfortunately American banking practise and money activities have added to the problems of the world economy. While the problems of a countries social security provision could be a contributory factor to the economic difficulties of European countries it is not the only reason. There are far more important reasons which go far deeper to the way the European Union is run and the banking rules of the Euro and a country's inflexibility to change them when economic climate changes.

Created: 8:15 PM 4/26/2012
Last updated: 8:15 PM 4/26/2012