Learning from Europe: Intro

It almost sounds like a fairy tale now, doesn’t it:

There was a time, not long ago, when some [political and economic] commentators believed Europe was a model for the rest of the world.

Ha!

Oliver Hartwich begins a series explaining why that much beloved fairy tale is having an unhappy ending. “Europe’s decay,” he says in this introductory piece, “is mostly due to the way Europe has been conducting itself.”

Europe … is not at the crossroads but is facing a dead-end. Or a cliff. A very steep cliff.

Since so much of the world has been eager to copy “that way,” it might be worth recognising what particular ways have led it to this vertiginous position. In particular,

We in Australasia could do well to learn from the pitfalls of elitist decision-making and an unsustainable, expanding welfare state…

But will we?

This looks like the start of a series worth keeping in touch with. [Or just leap to the whole piece here.]