Just one more thing about racism playing a role: PIGS.

GIPS would still be a readable acronym, for instance. But no, it is PIGS. And it is not just in the “tabloid” press. Indeed, and as far as I know, it was invented in the “serious”, “respected” press.

Regarding taxes is actually quite different: there is more space to raise them in the PIGS. For instance Spain is at 33%, Portugal at 36%, UK 37% and Germany 39% (tax as percentage of GDP). Greece 32, Ireland 29 (This is pre-crisis).

Knowing the US reasonably well (by books and spending quite some time over there – mainly Midwest) I would agree that the “race” issue is very different in the US versus in Europe. Actually in Europe it was never much talked about in these terms (until now). One is clearly starting to see the surfacing of a kind of North-South divide. To be quite frank, I would argue that it always existed.

I do believe that in the specific case of Spain, it is very difficult to explain things otherwise. Even the housing bubble: the UK had one also. The only really negative stat in Spain is unemployment. All the rest is pretty good (or average). PIG (note that the original I was Italy, not Ireland!) could be partially justified (though how come Belgium was out? Belgium has a dreadful debt/GDP, serious national problems, and no government for how long?). It is indeed very difficult to find a unifying rationale for Portugal+Italy+Greece+Spain other than “brown-people discrimination”. Even Portugal had comparable stats to France in 2008 (poorer country granted, but with lower tax burden)

BTW, I cannot easily find references to private debt, but I think (corrections appreciated), that British numbers are abysmal.

I am sincerely afraid, as things get worse and given the current narrative of “help” from Northern states to Southern states (which is nothing more than bank bailouts in disguise) that relationships among Euro-nations will get very sore indeed.

Remember that in early 20th century the idea of war coming back to Europe was seen as completely ridicule. As just 2 years ago the idea of a sovereign default would be seen as completely ridicule…

But my experience in the US is that many people like to jump to racism as a simple explanation to complicated issues, usually shutting down any sort of intelligent dialogue on the issue. Furthermore, what’s often labeled as racism in the US is, in my opinion, could usually be more accurately labeled classism, possibly with some prejudice mixed in where a class is assumed based on race prior to having more knowledge, but once more direct knowledge of class is introduced about a given individual judgements that were initially made based on race will be adjusted based on class.

My suspicion is that if you look at per capita GDP, countries such as the UK and Germany come out significantly higher. On the logical side, this implies that there is more room to raise taxes and/or cut government services without impoverishing a significant portion of the population, basically giving them more room to maneuver as they attempt to address the problems, and thus less likely to present a risk despite running high debt levels. On the less logical side, it could could be a more general association with class (at least how class tends to be defined in the US, meaning a combination of income, net worth, education, and those factors applied with lower weighting to friends and family of an individual), so lower per-capita income countries are perceived as lower class, and thus perceived as being higher risk.

All that aside, I think a very large number of nations, including the US, are racing towards a cliff in terms of public debt. So my only point is that I’d be careful what I label racist. It’s an easy label for complicated issues.

My “rich” friends: you mean those who have bought houses and cars en masse? These are Portuguese. Those who spend weekends in malls? Those who were in favor of building 10 stadia?

Human beings, as a species, cannot grasp what happens beyond eyesight (literally). This is neither good or bad. It is how we are as a species. Myths of “Europe”, “World”, never work. “Globalization”, “Europe” (in any form or shape) are bad ideas. As I see it the solution is decoupling: a less connected world.

Buy locally, meet your neighbors for fun. Enjoy the great Portuguese outdoors. The Sun.

What your rich friends don’t seem to realize is that they were fools too. All their richness is built upon taking money,resources from the less-smart (Portugal, Africa, South America, Asia …) and they have done it in such a non-sustainable way that eventually their get-rich-fast scheme will fail.

We don’t have to take that road. We don’t have to be at war over who is smarter and who will be richer. What we need is a Europe, a World with a sustainable economy were resources are not so badly divided.
We all need less cars, less houses, less playstations and less money. We need to stop living to ourselves and start living with our neighbors.