With garbage piling up, gas stations running dry and scattered violence in the streets, France hardly looks like a role model for the U.S. these days.

But at least French officials are trying to deal with their biggest fiscal woes. Those crippling strikes and protests come in response to a necessary plan to cut back public entitlements, including a two-year increase in the nation's minimum retirement age.

In a marked contrast to America's free-spenders, Europeans are taking an ax to their government excesses. A continent known for nanny states is making the tough decisions that we need to make.

Last week, the United Kingdom announced its biggest spending cuts in decades, the centerpiece of an austerity program reflecting British resolve to start living within its means.

The British opposition sounded very much like the Obama administration, warning that spending cutbacks would crush a fragile economic recovery.

The opposite is true. These cutbacks are all about restoring public confidence in government's long-term stability. In the absence of a credible plan for controlling runaway costs, consumers and businesses lack the confidence to spend and invest. Global financial markets lack the confidence to extend credit. Unchecked, a gradual erosion in confidence can give way to a rout.

We've seen that unforgiving process in Greece — an example that evidently has helped scare the Britons into a five-year plan for fiscal sobriety.

Their cuts will be hugely painful: No one wants to see police staffing reduced or universities shut down. (Some might take consolation in the news that even the Queen is taking a big hit, budget-wise.)

British leaders have invoked the postwar spirit of perseverance. We'll see if that lasts when the government follows through on its plan to slash half a million public-sector jobs in coming years. As Rupert Murdoch's Sun put it in a front-page headline, "Ouch! That Hurt."

Yet if the U.K., France and other European nations can figure out a fair approach for reining in spending without wiping out their economies, they will show us the way.

In our hearts, we want it all. Political leaders tell us we can have it all. But our brains and our guts know better. We can't afford gold-plated pensions for public employees, a money's-no-object health care system, a sprawling government payroll and a retirement system that's destined to run out of cash.

Illinois is a perfect example. At the rate we're going, our state pensions will pay out their last dollar in 2018, according to at least one reliable estimate. If benefits for current employees are left unchecked, the revenue required to meet those obligations will swamp us. The status quo can't be sustained.

Watch what's happening in Europe. And understand that if we continue to do nothing, the old world's pain will hit us, too.