The Corpse In the Apartment

The delightfully acerb Mark Steyn here expatiates on the enervating effect of too much welfare and too much government on Europe in general and Germany in particular. His column is a riff on the story of the Frenchman who kept his dead mother in his apartment for years to collect her check--a kind of Bates Welfare Motel.

That's the perfect summation of Europe: welfare addiction over demographic reality.

Think of Germany as that flat in Marseilles, and Mr Schröder's government as the stiff, and the country's many state benefits as that French bloke's dead mum's benefits. Germany is dying, demographically and economically.

* * * *

Old obdurate Leftists can argue about which system is "better", but at a certain point it becomes irrelevant: by 2050, there will be more and wealthier Americans, and fewer and poorer Europeans. In the 14th century, it took the Black Death to wipe out a third of Europe's population. In the course of the 21st century, Germany's population will fall by over 50 per cent to some 38 million or lower - killed not by disease or war but by the Eutopia to which Mr Schröder and his electorate are wedded.

Tough stuff, but it has the whiff of truth.