Research Paper on:
Enforced Leisure and Its Dangers

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
position paper on Steven Mullers "Time to Kill" (The National Interest, Summer 1997), in which the author asserts that Europes perpetual high unemployment and business-constraining government regulations could in time  destroy the fabric of the European culture. Both existing and emerging conditions "suggest that the outcome of large-scale enforced leisure will be a new form of social conflict in  Europe" (Muller, 1997; p. 26). Mullers (1997) thesis is startling and superficially can be rejected. Closer examination, however, reveals that his logic is sound and the future he  envisions for all of the worlds most developed economies is one that is quite plausible and needs to be avoided. Mullers Arguments It  is Mullers (1997) position - and one with which this paper agrees - that the increase in the welfare state combined with decreasing meaningful work for Europeans to do will  result in an entire region in which people are supported by the state and lulled into an idleness and boredom that will threaten Europes very character. Muller (1997) is  sounding a call to action. He is not condemning Europe to this dismal future, but rather is pointing to warning signs heralding its advent.  Much of Europe always has predisposed to "big government" and a view that the government needs to oversee the welfare of its citizens. One aspect of current  European life that Muller (1997) fails to mention is the incredibly heavy tax burden that Europeans carry. Varying by nation of course, some Europeans pay as much as 45  percent in income taxes alone; other taxes claim even more of their earnings. So in addition to the fact that there is less meaningful work becoming available to Europeans