GLOBAL JOURNALIST: Are we approaching economic disaster?

Byron Scott, professor emeritus, Missouri School of Journalism: When 17th- and 18th-century philosophers like Hobbes and Rousseau started recommending the so-called social contract as a way for governments to serve their citizens, they didn’t include medical care or retirement income. Nor did they ask about paying for university tuitions or maternity leaves. But under the stress of the worldwide recession, some of the best loved perks of the social contract are under threat. Across the European Union, governments are proposing austerity measures, cutbacks and reforms that are not going down well with their citizens.