$98 per barrel oil

Do you have any cite for this? Nothing I can find nor anything I've heard
of before supports this. ( That West Germany paid for US Military )

John

"Wolfgang Schwanke" wrote in message
...
Jay Honeck wrote in news:1194886120.503835.134330@
57g2000hsv.googlegroups.com:

They started building their welfare system in the late 19th/early 20th
century. At that time they were still comparatively poor as their
economies were mostly agricultural. They got rich after WW2, and used
that money to massively expand their welfare systems. The expansion
stopped with the recessions in the 1990s and 2000s, so did the tax
rises. Their budgets are now at equilibrium, and the economy is going
strong once again.

The Western European welfare economies could only exist because they
lived under the umbrella of America's protection from the Soviet
Union.

Bollox. If it were true they'd have collapsed in 1990.

Not having to spend money on self-defense is a wonderful thing,
but don't count on it lasting for too many more "generations"

You may not be aware of this, but the European countries do have their
own military and they pay for it themselves. Did you also know that the
costs of the American military in West Berlin (where I live) was payed
by the West German government?

Regards

--
AFN from USA, BFBS UK OK

http://www.wschwanke.de/ usenet_20031215 (AT) wschwanke (DOT) de