Seth Ackerman:
> Angelus, I thought you were against the welfare
state
> in the first place. It's a racist, nationalistic
> travesty, right?
I've never said anything remotely like this, but this sort of willful misattribution is par for the course on lbo-talk.
> And this Wikipedia article doesn't mention that the
SPD > has decided to rescind large parts of Hartz IV
*LOL* this just confirms my suspicions about how woefully misinformed American Europhiles are about actual developments in Europe.
No, the SPD has not "decided to rescind large parts of Hartz IV". The SPD has voted to support Kurt Beck's initiative to pay out Arbeitslosengeld I for a year longer in the case of older (i.e. over 45 years of age). This does nothing to touch Hartz IV.
I think Europhilia on the American left is related to the Angophilia of the American right. Just as middlebrow right-wingers will eat up anything from _The Economist_ as long as it is spoken with an English accent, American liberals go weak in the knees for anything continental.
> But Lafontaine is a racist, I guess you'd say
No, Lafontaine *is* a racist, whether I say so or not, and as I've documented countless times here and on Marxmail. I'm sorry if that does not conform to your illusions.
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