Credit where credit is due: in this case, this story by Steven Erlanger of the New York Times:

PARIS — Across Western Europe, the “lifestyle superpower,” the assumptions and gains of a lifetime are suddenly in doubt. The deficit crisis that threatens the euro has also undermined the sustainability of the European standard of social welfare, built by left-leaning governments since the end of World War II.

Europeans have boasted about their social model, with its generous vacations and early retirements, its national health care systems and extensive welfare benefits, contrasting it with the comparative harshness of American capitalism.

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Heartbreaking, I know. But then, social-welfare systems were actually affordable for a while when the U.S. a) was reconstructing their countries with the Marshall Plan and b) providing American troops and U.S. nukes to shield Europe from the hungry Soviet bear throughout the eighties and nineties. Hey — it’s easy to be a “lifestyle superpower” when you don’t have anything better to do:

Europeans have benefited from low military spending, protected by NATO and the American nuclear umbrella. They have also translated higher taxes into a cradle-to-grave safety net. “The Europe that protects” is a slogan of the European Union.

But all over Europe governments with big budgets, falling tax revenues and aging populations are experiencing rising deficits, with more bad news ahead.

With low growth, low birthrates and longer life expectancies, Europe can no longer afford its comfortable lifestyle, at least not without a period of austerity and significant changes. The countries are trying to reassure investors by cutting salaries, raising legal retirement ages, increasing work hours and reducing health benefits and pensions.

I don’t want to spoil the fun by listing the bad news; that’s Erlanger’s job. But having lived in Europe  for a good deal of my life, let me just say this news doesn’t exactly comes as a shock to those of us who spent many hours being lectured in Parisian cafes, German beer gardens, English and Irish pubs, Hungarian nightclubs and Russian gangster hangouts about the superiority of the European way of life over the savagery of the States.

There are lots of reasons the Euro-fantasy is coming to an end, but here’s the biggest one:

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According to the European Commission, by 2050 the percentage of Europeans older than 65 will nearly double. In the 1950s there were seven workers for every retiree in advanced economies. By 2050, the ratio in the European Union will drop to 1.3 to 1.

“The easy days are over for countries like Greece, Portugal and Spain, but for us, too,” said Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, a French lawyer who did a study of Europe in the global economy for the French government. “A lot of Europeans would not like the issue cast in these terms, but that is the storm we’re facing. We can no longer afford the old social model, and there is a real need for structural reform.”

Remember — this is the future Obama and the Democrats want for us, too.

Good night, and good luck.