What makes the debate so passionate in 2005 is a new fear that did not exist in the 1980’s: that the new members have a different social model, in which workers’ rights and the welfare state will be eroded. It is not so much the Polish plumber as it is the Slovak 19% flat tax that is the challenge to the older West European social model and welfare state.
促使2005年的辩论如此激烈的是一种1980年代所没有的新的恐惧：新成员国拥有一种不同社会模式，在这种模式中工人们的权利和福利国家制度将逐渐受到腐蚀。比起波兰水电工，斯洛伐克19%的单一税率才是对老的西欧国家的社会模式和福利国家制度的真正挑战。