Fifth in a five-part series. The future of the European Union does not look bright. Just this month, Standard & Poor’s slashed the credit ratings of France and eight other major EU nations. The exact details in each country are different, but the outlines are the same: Inadequate economic growth slowed by high taxes, burdensome regulation, and an aging population increasingly dependent on the government.
The United States could be headed down this European path. The so-called big three entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) consume 43 percent of all federal spending today. In 2011, 48.5 percent, of all U.S. households received some type of government benefit. And we are already borrowing 40 cents of every dollar spent on these programs.
