One of my favorite political cartoons is this Michael Ramirez gem showing President Obama following the European lemmings over the cliff of statism.
But this isn’t a laughing matter. As shown in this remarkable graph on global living standards, Americans enjoy significantly more consumption than their European counterparts.
And here’s another set of charts showing a big gap between the United States and Europe.
So the obvious question is whether we should copy the statist policies of our cousins across the Atlantic.
This video explores some of the possible consequences.
The video should make us contemplate the importance of cultural attitudes.
Values such as the work ethic, the spirit of self reliance, and personal responsibility are all form of social capital that help an economy prosper.
But if social capital begins to erode, restoring it is a bit like trying to put toothpaste back in a tube.
So while I obviously think tax and spending policy is important, pro-growth fiscal policy may not mean much in a society where dependency and mooching are considered acceptable lifestyles.
Which is why the third and fourth lessons in this video on the European fiscal crisis are very important.
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] reversed bad fiscal policy. And many nations have reduced government intervention. But fixing the culture of a people is like putting toothpaste back in a […]
[…] This is bad news for poor people and bad news for taxpayers. But it’s also bad news for the nation since it reflects an erosion of societal capital. […]
[…] Trying to convince voters that it’s not right use government coercion to steal other people’s money. An increasingly hard task. […]
[…] It’s much easier to restore physical capital than it is to restore cultural capital. […]
[…] But let’s not overlook the role of culture. The crowd in Washington gets away with lots of venal behavior because an ever-larger share of the population is losing the spirit of self reliance and personal responsibility. […]
[…] does matter is that we have a malignant welfare state that is eroding the social capital of the country. The entire apparatus should be dismantled and turned over to the […]
[…] reversed bad fiscal policy. And many nations have reduced government intervention. But fixing the culture of a people is like putting toothpaste back in a […]
[…] Simply stated, if too many people thinks it’s okay to ride in the wagon of government dependency, that a troubling sign that social or cultural capital has eroded. […]
[…] if you’re a public policy wonk and you worry about the rising level of government dependency and the erosion of self reliance, then you’ll understand why the chart below, which was presented earlier today at the […]
[…] Here’s a great video on differences between the United State and Europe. And here’s a video that is best described […]
[…] I would have labeled the guy “Washington” instead of “Congress,” but that’s nitpicking. The point I’m trying to make is that we have a bloated federal government that is sapping the economy’s vitality and undermining social capital. […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] my humble opinion, the rule of law is a form of social capital. And like other examples of social capital (work ethic, honesty, etc), it’s part of a nation’s […]
[…] The main takeaway from the interview is that the tipping point is not a number, but a state of mind. It’s the health of the nation’s “social capital.” […]
[…] The main takeaway from the interview is that the tipping point is not a number, but a state of mind. It’s the health of the nation’s “social capital.” […]
[…] I fear that European nations are going to suffer some major dislocations. And as this Michael Ramirez cartoon suggests, the same problem could happen in America. […]
[…] I sometimes complain about growing dependency in the United States, but I guess we should count ourselves as being lucky that we’re not as far down the path as […]
[…] Will Growing Dependency and Erosion of Social Capital Turn America into Europe? […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] great fear is that the “social capital” of self reliance in America will slowly disappear and that the United States will turn into a European-style welfare […]
[…] I would have labeled the guy “Washington” instead of “Congress,” but that’s nitpicking. The point I’m trying to make is that we have a bloated federal government that is sapping the economy’s vitality and undermining social capital. […]
[…] I would have labeled the guy “Washington” instead of “Congress,” but that’s nitpicking. The point I’m trying to make is that we have a bloated federal government that is sapping the economy’s vitality and undermining social capital. […]
Indeed that cartoon encapsulates the systematic institutionalized drive towards decline.
America becoming Europe? No question it is. Nothing better describes in a concise manner America’s decline aspirations.
The fact that Americans seem to have little clue as to where their top fifteen percent of the world prosperity derives from, means that unrationalized and unappreciated prosperity will be lost in short order.
Culture and policy evolve in tandem. Under European policies, American culture will Europeanize too. And that is actually the natural state of things, the entropy of civilization (*).
One of the mistakes skeptic American progressives make is that they seem to believe that the American psyche and culture is deeply and immutably different. They believe that Americans, due to deply entrenched cultural differences, will continue to work with enough motivation and creativity to outcompete the rest of the world, even when modified flatter effort reward curves increase taxing the exceptional in order to insulate the ordinary from the consequences of mediocrity. It is a delusion. American industriousness, motivation and creativity will plummet in short order under euro-style welfare incentives. There is absolutely no reason to believe that Americans who ultimately came from other parts of the world have DNA different than the rest of humanity. A mere couple hundred years is way to short of a time for bio-molecular evolution of any consequence. Americans are productive and innovative because they live in the naturally steep effort-reward curves of capitalism. There is no way around that. No free lunch and no return from even failed attempts to circumvent this reality.
The first data on how different Americans are will come when in a few short months ObamaCare tells three hundred million Americans: “ So long as you keep your contribution to GDP below 4x poverty level, someone else will pay most of your healthcare costs. You no longer have to work to earn it at some point in your life”. Sure there will be some cultural inertia. But let’s see how long it will last. Let’s see how long it will be before people figure it out and start altering their lifetime plans around the new flatter effort-reward curves. There is no return from this path. Young people who have not achieved success yet, face a somber future, though they have not fully realized it yet as they look at their fading HopNChange posters.
With cultural convergence, economic fortune will inevitably follow. Unfortunately Europe has not fully revealed yet the terminal state of this road to HopNChange.
(*) Entropy: “The degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity”. Is a powerful description and concept — borrowed from Physics — which when applied to politico-economics encapsulates the inert state of collective economic management by majority versus the dynamism and vitality of individuals in free market capitalism.