Veto Power
From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Fri, 2007-09-28 07:13
A quote from Patrick J. Buchanan on townhall.com, 28 September 2007
What enables Wallonia to block formation of a government is a parliamentary system where Flanders and Wallonia must each assent to any government. Which means that half of the Walloons, 20 percent of Belgium’s population, holds veto power over a national government.
@ Amsterdamsky
Submitted by Norman Conquest 304 on Fri, 2007-09-28 15:01.
Fun with numbers.
You're absolutely right. I mean, Wallonia and Belgium as a (black) whole have been playing with the notion of unemployment for quite a while, at least least two decades, to the dismay of Eurostat itself. In respect of statistical accuracy, this country behaves just like the Soviet Union, especially when it is convenient. What is the exact definition of "unemployment"? Is it full time, part-time, long-term, short-term? Does the term "unemployed" refer to "people without work" or to "people getting unemployment benefits on a full-time/part-time basis". Let me also remind you that in Belgium the unemployed are entitled to these benefits (and other social allowances) without any time limits. This means that in Wallonia for example there are entire generations who've never ever worked one single day.
Fun with numbers
Submitted by Amsterdamsky on Fri, 2007-09-28 13:44.
I have yet to see the same numbers in anyones employment statistics. They Economist (last I checked) listed 13% for all of Belgium which would suggest Wallonia is higher than 15%. I normally trust the Economist but then again they listed the US tax rate at 33.5% apparently clueless that most states also have their own barrage of income and other taxes.
Wallonia is poor, socialist, statist.
Submitted by Norman Conquest 304 on Fri, 2007-09-28 12:37.
This brief comment just to say "no comment". Pat Buchanan has hit the point. This is also what I meant in my comments on Anglo-Saxon Flanders yesterday. Mr Buchanan's formulation is just much better than mine, I admit.
"Belgium is also divided economically and politically. Flanders is wealthy, conservative, capitalist. Wallonia is poor, socialist, statist. As the Flemish 60 percent of the population generates 70 percent of GDP and 80 percent of all exports, it is weary of seeing its taxes -- the top rate is 50 percent -- going to sustain a socialist Wallonia where unemployment is 15 percent".
However, 15% unemployment is too generous a figure. 15% would be a good rate for Wallonia. Instead, Wallonia's unemployement stands rather in the range of 20-25% and, unless Walloons wake up, which I doubt will ever happen, the situation will only get worse.