I'm not american, but I think your comment is in bad taste. The region is looking at an Argentina-style economic collapse. It's disingenuous to say you have better social programs when, you know, you might not have been able to pay for it.
Once again, I feel like pointing out it's not only Europe. The US is just as insolvent, and whatever chain reaction might start from Greece can/will reach any Western country at least. Asia is in better shape right now.
Every time a country takes on more debt, it means it's failed to live within its means. Very few countries have managed without taking on more and more thin-air money year after year.
Western economies are just a huge intertwined clusterfuck. Don't think you're safe.
Please explain which Asia? The Asia which has generations of poverty and casting and wants to do nothing about it? The asia that is largely influenced by super radical islamic clerics? The Asia that will die off soon because its birth rate is so low that it won't replace its aging population? Or the Asia that is so reliant on American and other Western consumers that they have to continuously deflate their currency in order to keep their citizens from revolting against what is one of the largest plutocracies of all time?
Sure the west has problems but nowhere near Asia's.
> The Asia which has generations of poverty and casting and wants to do nothing about it?
No, the Asia that has recently engaged in less gambling at the casino of the "financial services industry" than the West.
Generations of poverty? Well, that can be explained by human nature. Various "Elites" oppressing/abusing/killing people, and confiscating the wealth created by them. Our problem as a species is that the West consists of the same homo sapiens as all the Asian countries you have a problem with. In other words, our collective problem is that we're all human beings.
Fair enough. I actually do think there are countries that are in a better relative position than both the U.S. and Eurozone, but none that I can think of in Asia. Specifically, most of the Northern European countries (Finland, Sweden, Norway), Canada, Australia, and, surprisingly, Brazil.
Yeah, the Nordic countries seem to be in better shape, likely thanks to their heavy taxation.
The PIIGS countries have recently adopted "austerity measures", but for example here in Finland, our taxes and price-levels are so ridiculously high it's like we're in some kind of permanent austerity mode.
Our VAT was recently raised 1 percent, to 23%. It would be quite an accomplishment in the field of pissing away taxpayer money if Finland was broke. Oh wait.. even Finland can't get by without more debt practically every year. Go figure.
As for the overall shape various countries are in, at least Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark seem to be doing alright.
In Asia, I bet at least Singapore, Hong Kong, and probably South-Korea are in decent/good shape. Australia has a nasty property bubble going on, probably about to deflate. Same thing in China, but they've gone completely overboard what with all those ghost cities etc.
