"Some have suggested I want to abandon Europe's social model," Blair told the European Parliament last month. "But tell me: what type of social model is it that has 20 million unemployed in Europe, productivity rates falling behind those of the United States; that is allowing more science graduates to be produced by India than by Europe; and that, on any relative index of a modern economy -- skills, R&D, patents, IT -- is going down not up."
Without radical reform, the future does indeed look bleak for Europe's social model. India will expand its biotechnology sector fivefold over the next five years, China has trebled its spending on research and development in the last five, while of the top 20 universities in the world today, only two are now in Europe, Blair noted in his Strasbourg speech.
Then there is old Europe's demographic time-bomb. The ratio of those in retirement compared to those at work is expected to double from 24 percent today to 50 percent in 2050. This will not only lead to even lower growth rates -- a full percentage point a year according to the European Commission -- but significantly higher spending on pensions and healthcare.

-p (ALL social models could use improvement)