Europe is interesting. They are united due to the European
Union, but they have not gone and taken the steps necessary to take it a step
further with respect to their welfare based systems. Let us discuss.
European Welfare: Let's discuss the advantages of
uniting their systems of welfare first before we look at why they do not want
to do so as of yet. For one, the key advantage is money. A greater
money pool means more resources to distribute benefits for everyone.
Also, as they have the free movement of people there, a unified system
helps to ease the transition of peoples if they are on welfare in one part and
still need to be on welfare in another. Basically, logistically, if
you're a citizen in one country some may still be able to get benefits even if
they are in another European Union country, or they will be denied benefits
once they leave their home nation and have to go through hoops trying to get
welfare in their new home country. So by streamlining it, they fix those
issues. Another benefit is that if they unify the system to extend across
Europe, that means local governments and national governments need not worry
about such issues anymore. They literally free their national budgets up (if
designed to do so), which allows the European nations like Greece to focus more
on technology and infrastructure. European welfare is also not that
unique, but is not equal in each country. As such migrants will generally
travel to one country with the best welfare to freeload. A unified system
ends that.
But the European nations do not want to
yet. They like the autonomy and control they have over the welfare
system. It basically gives them power over some of the citizenry.
It is also a bit of nationalization where these countries like to lay
claim that they can aid and help their own citizens. Not to mention all
these countries provide different forms of benefits and by giving it over to a
unified system, they may inadvertently be denying benefits to their citizens.
As such riots may ensue. Also, there is the issue that the system
cannot keep up with growth of the entire European population, which means that
the benefits of a unified system may need to be curtailed or denied due to lack
of funds. These are the reasons why they have yet to take the next step.
Conclusion: Europe has a lot to gain from
joining hands on welfare type programs. A unified system would handle
seniors in retirement, disability, unemployment/job training, medical and due
to their brand of welfare and need for increasing native populations, there
system will also handle child care and maturity leave. They can also have
the group that runs the program decide the number of hours per week a person is
allowed to work, how much pay a person should get per week, and the number of breaks
at work a person is allowed to have. It can be means tested to insure
fairness, and be contributed to via a separate tax on every European citizen so
that they contribute to their own retirement and welfare in times of trouble.
They can do much here, and I think it is only a matter of time before
they begin this shift toward a unified welfare system.
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