The lead editorial in the OpinionJournal today is a good read for liberals, because conservatives already know this stuff. Also because it’s really short! (wink).
It helps to also read this blog entry I wrote a week ago or so called “I reviewed the latest Stats Can employment figures. The liberal plan is working”, in which I pointed to these stats:
So far this year, employment in government has risen by 45,000 while private-sector employment has decreased by 39,000.
“In total, close to 2.67 million people were working in the three levels of government—the highest level since 1994,” Statistics Canada said.
But the OpinionJournal editorial is called The European Disease – Economic anxiety is a product of the welfare state.
[…] The economic growth rate of the European Union nations since 2003 has limped along at about half that of the U.S. In the 1980s and ‘90s the U.S. created about 40 million new jobs; Western Europe created some 10 million, well over half of which were in the public sector. If this divergence in economic performance continues for 40 years, the American worker will be roughly twice as wealthy as his European counterpart.
The Europeans have created a vast constellation of domestic policy interventions that are cloaked in the seductive rhetoric of compassion, fairness and cultural sophistication. These policies include highly generous welfare benefits for the unemployed; state ownership and subsidy of key industries (such as Airbus); rules that make it difficult to hire and fire workers; prohibitions against closing down plants; heavy protections of labor unions against competitive forces; mandatory worker benefit packages that include health insurance, child care allowances, paid parental leave, four to six weeks of vacation; shortened work weeks; and, alas, high taxes on business and labor to pay for these lavish benefits.
In sum, European nations penalize work and subsidize non-work, and, no surprise, they have gotten a lot of the latter and far too little of the former. By contrast, the U.S. model—allegedly cruel and “laissez-faire”—has done much better both by economic growth and worker opportunity.
The frustrating irony is that, at the very moment in history when Europe’s model is in disrepute, many U.S. politicians still want to emulate it.
[…] Europe is now paying a high price for this failed experiment with welfare state socialism. Today’s populist revolt against economic integration in France and Germany suggests that these nations remain mysteriously impervious to the need for change. A bigger mystery is why some American politicians are so intent on repeating Europe’s mistakes.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
Contact Mr. Johannesen about this article using this form. Please refer to article's title.
FOLLOW @JoelJohannesen ON X!
- Proud To Be Canadian. But Maybe Not. - Tuesday December 17, 2024 at 2:07 pm
- Say something. - Friday October 25, 2024 at 6:03 pm
- Keep going, or veer right - Monday August 26, 2024 at 4:30 pm
