Socialism’s cul-de-sac: how will America respond?

EUrope sits on the cusp of a revolution.

 

Between unsustainable social welfare costs and demographic collapse, EUrope’s unavoidable question will be how to address what happens, as Margaret Thatcher so memorably wondered, when socialism runs out of money.

http://spectator.org/archives/2011/06/22/europes-not-so-revolutionary-y

 

For EUrope, we see the results in mass demonstrations protesting the reduction of entitlements and demanding a return to…the past! That’s EUropean “progressivism” for you.  But, demonstrations can’t fix the problem: if there is no money, from what can such benefits derive. Bereft of solutions, such demonstrations represent nothing less than a primal scream of despair for a paradise forever lost.

 

These same issues will also have to be addressed in America and we’ve already observed the response of the public sector unions to unavoidable cuts. An interesting, pending experiment in Illinois should provide valuable insights into how Americans react to similar circumstances when the collective petri dish defined by Chicago and its Crook County are forced to confront a current estimated $108b debt liability. This is an area virtually defined by public sector entitlements and there is no hope of such a liability will ever be covered. My guess…we’ll see rampant violence and exodus of the business class. However, I don’t consider Chicago and Crook County to be normal representations of America, anymore than are their other deep-blue sisters, Detroit and San Francisco.

 

However, what about the rest of America? Are we, too, to see EUro-style mass protests erupt as Americans come to realize that our entitlements are unsustainable?

What do you think? Why or why not?