Sorry for the late answer.
I think somebody asked allready in the "socialist (in your Face Segolene) thread how to compare European vs. American conservatives.
I didn't answer there because I simply don't know.
Or at least not well enough to give any valuable comparisons,
I think Sarkozy could be roughly the equivalent of a Republican
but then the political system in France is quite different to yours and you certainly do not have any social democratic parties, I know of.
We basically have a stagnent two party system, with both parties being more or less identical except for hot ticket items. Across the entire spectrum, there's little difference. We have legions of third parties, including some social democratic parties, but they're never going to gain power. Occassionally you have a Bernie Sanders (social democrat) or Ron Paul (libertarian), but they tend to be marginalized.
Rev Disk did a good job on outlining Sarkozy's programm.
He is one of the reasons why I mostly lurk and hardly post because
somebody is often out-thinking me and almost always outwriting me as well.
You could call me a socialist for feeding of your posts and giving
back very little
Eh. With discussions, we build off each other. Nothing wrong with that. I rather enjoy your posts actually. Due to my current circumstances, I don't get to mix with many Euros anymore. I did enjoy my time in Europe, even though it was mainly the unpleasant parts. Mainly because I'm a bit of a history nut, and it was very pleasant to see historic sites outside of the books.
Sarkozy got also an interesting approach towards the social security system which he wants to change into something where you would have to pay a certain amount of your health cost youself which is already the case for some people but I totally miss the discussion for the pensions. In France we have the contract of generations which means that the active part of the population is paying the retiremend money to the retired which they did back then when they were active which brings on a big problem: they didn't invest in Pensionfunds but just supported the older which in the 50 and 60 was mathematically possible but isn't anymore since it takes 4 employed people to support one of the retired and they keep on getting more and more and older and older.
This isn't extremely dissimilar from the US social security scheme. You pay in your entire life, and get a marginal percentage back. Theoretically, it would gain interest, but basically at or less than cost of living increases. We're going to have significant issues as well over the next few decades with an aging population.
Little example : you make a thousand Euros a month you'd be paying
400 Euros for the sick, the unemployed, the young and the old and this is money you'll never see again. Over all you'll be giving 800 euros to the gvmt which is processing and redistributing it at enormous cost (loss).
Depending on your state, it's only slightly better here. We're just better at hiding taxes all over the place. You have a federal tax, state tax, possibly multiple township taxes, social security taxes, Medicaid taxes, sales taxes (6% in Pennsylvania), product taxes (gasoline is the largest), service taxes (internet, toll roads, cell phones), sin taxes (alcohol, tobacco, etc), death taxes, etc. Companies have to pay wage taxes on employees, so even though it is not listed in your pay stub there's more taxes on your wages. It's probably between 50-60% total taxes, depending on your state and spending habits.
When I grew up "Solidarity" and "Democracy" were the keywords but those two are not doing so well together. When the socialists got 47 percent of the votes it just means that those are the half who feed of the rest and want to be commanding the other to endlessly support them without any return. Disgusting really.
Nobody talks about it but Central Europe is bancrupt - financially, morally and as a military force non existent. I said it before we would need a revolution and not an election.
For the moment I allow myself just to be temporarily happy with Sarkozy and see what happens....
While I wouldn't underestimate the combined potential of all the Central European militaries (prior to political constraints), economically the region is not in good shape. A lot of reforms are required. Eastern Europe is much worse off due to the decades of Soviet occupation, but they're making significant progress. It's possible to make things better, just requires pragmatic choices.
