Re: As usual uniting factor is prosperity....Not legal system or constitution...(both will crumble fairly quickly and violently, when prosperity is removed...
Sounds like I've found a blip in your prosperity-bound theory:
Attracting Attention At An Explosive Rate
Although Austria has developed into one of Europe's most prosperous nations, its global reputation is still tied to cultural clich‚s, such as the Opera Ball, Sachertorte, Lippizaner horses and Alpine skiing. It is far less well known as a high-performance business location.
In the early 1990s Austria was investing nearly ATS14 billion a year abroad, or twice as much as it was receiving in direct foreign investment. The development was not unexpected since wealthy countries tend to be net exporters of capital.
However, since 1995 there has been a marked turn-round in fortunes. Austria's overseas investment has continued to hold up well and looks like being a record this year.
But the sums are overshadowed by the explosion in direct foreign investment in Austria. Over the past four years an average of ATS21 billion a year has been pumped into Austria, with Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the U.S. and U.K. leading the charge...
Financial Times, December 11, 1998
Excerpted from:
austria.org
Add the following demographic data:
Net migration rate: 2.5 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1995 est.)
Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 76.9 years
male: 73.7 years
female: 80.27 years (1995 est.)
Ethnic divisions: German 99.4%, Croatian 0.3%, Slovene 0.2%, other 0.1%
Religions: Roman Catholic 85%, Protestant 6%, other 9%
Languages: German
Literacy: age 15 and over can read and write (1974 est.)
total population: 99%
Labor force: 3.47 million (1989)
by occupation: services 56.4%, industry and crafts 35.4%, agriculture and forestry 8.1%
note: an estimated 200,000 Austrians are employed in other European countries;
foreign laborers in Austria number 177,840, about 5% of labor force (1988)
Excerpted from:
boku.ac.at
....and know tell us how come such a little land of milk and honey casted so many votes on neofascistic FPO?? With barely 5% unemployed and promising economic trends such as highlighted in the above FT report, I guess we can say that Austria is prosperous? |
