Non and Nee to EU
Oh, those silly Europeans.
Clinging to a social market model, with short work weeks, tons of vacation, socialized health care and highly progressive taxation.
David Brooks made a bold but dubious claim in today's column: "Forgive me for making a blunt and obvious point," he said, "but events in Western Europe are slowly discrediting large swaths of American liberalism."
He went on to say: "The core fact is that the European model is foundering under the fact that billions of people are willing to work harder than the Europeans are."
The problem isn't the model as much as it's the price of labor. It's the wages, stupid. Asian wages are so low compared that the US government could pay manufacturers to keep their factories on American soil -- sometimes it does -- and they would still leave.
In fact, American reliance on free market solutions to health care has created a crisis to the point where Bill Ford (CEO, Ford Motor Company) raised the question of a national system. Even General Motors supports Canada's national healthcare system (though not in America). One of the main reasons these companies can't compete globally isn't because of an archaic welfare state -- it's because some free market solutions aren't working.
I feel so discredited now.
***
Brooks does make a good point, linking the growing strains of European xenophobia with fears of federalism, immigration and other pressures. But he missed that in America, the xenophobes are more likely to cling to a free market model.
Clinging to a social market model, with short work weeks, tons of vacation, socialized health care and highly progressive taxation.
David Brooks made a bold but dubious claim in today's column: "Forgive me for making a blunt and obvious point," he said, "but events in Western Europe are slowly discrediting large swaths of American liberalism."
He went on to say: "The core fact is that the European model is foundering under the fact that billions of people are willing to work harder than the Europeans are."
The problem isn't the model as much as it's the price of labor. It's the wages, stupid. Asian wages are so low compared that the US government could pay manufacturers to keep their factories on American soil -- sometimes it does -- and they would still leave.
In fact, American reliance on free market solutions to health care has created a crisis to the point where Bill Ford (CEO, Ford Motor Company) raised the question of a national system. Even General Motors supports Canada's national healthcare system (though not in America). One of the main reasons these companies can't compete globally isn't because of an archaic welfare state -- it's because some free market solutions aren't working.
I feel so discredited now.
***
Brooks does make a good point, linking the growing strains of European xenophobia with fears of federalism, immigration and other pressures. But he missed that in America, the xenophobes are more likely to cling to a free market model.
posted by waterloo at 12:14 PM
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