It’s pretty safe to say—safe to say right now—that our great republic has reached a political and economic crossroads.
The question we face, of course, is: how European do we want to be, if at all? The May 7 Economist noted that France—France! The cheese-eating surrender monkeys!—is actually doing relatively well, economically. Sure, it’s in recession like nearly everyone else. But outside of its unemployment level, it has some real strengths that we don’t:
The French are great savers and most have not taken out unaffordable mortgages or spent heavily on credit. Household debt as a share of GDP is less than half that in Britain or America. The prospect of nationalizing banks may give Americans nightmares about turning French. In fact the French government has not yet had to rescue any big French bank from collapse, let alone nationalize one.
A couple of Sundays ago, an American expat wrote in the New York Times Magazine about life in the Netherlands. The income tax bite there is an insane-sounding 52 percent. But as one accountant notes, if you add up payroll taxes and state and local levies in the United States, you’re creeping up pretty quickly to that number (depending, of course, on your income level).
And over there, you still get health insurance, even if you’re thrown out of work. A Dutch author notes:
One problem with the American system is that if you lose your job and are without an income, that’s not just bad for you but for the economy. Our system has more security. And I think it makes our quality of life better. My American friends say they live in the best country in the world, and in a lot of ways they are right. But they always have to worry: “What happens to my family if I have a heart attack? What happens when I turn 65 or 70?”
Both these articles admit that Europe is not Utopia. The price of this kind of security is often sameness, a lack of opportunity, and restrictions that most Americans wouldn’t tolerate. European nations can often put stupid restrictions on speech for instance. And its fabled “tolerance” can be surprisingly limited. Why, after all, do Muslims and other immigrants generally assimilate better here?
Then, too, some cultural critics note a certain moral numbness reflected in modern European culture.
Still, it’s easy to see why a growing number of Americans have found some aspects of the “European model” attractive. Shouldn’t government look out for its people’s well-being?
Right now, the “Anglo-American model” is looking to many at best erratic, at worst cruel. “Personal responsibility” is sounding like “you’re on your own, pal.” But the model also has allowed a beneficial entrepreneurialism and business creativity to flourish, despite the crazy bubbles and busts. As Economist blog Free Exchange asks:
Are we willing to sacrifice growth (and dramatic increases in our living standards) in exchange for less volatility?
European security and American risk-taking—can we somehow take both paths?
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