It’s with those of us who can agree with both of the previous points of view, despite the fact that they come from different ends of the political spectrum. Yes, even in the age of the blabocrats, there are moderates still out there. Lots of us. We just don’t yell as loudly as the blabocrats do.
Of course, there are also those of us that *disagree* with both of the previous points of view, as well as rejecting the left-right spectrum as inadequate and simply a choice between two types of control.
If you have the time, I highly recommend watching this class about the Constitution, taught by prominent libertarian Michael Badnarik, available for download on archive.org. (Note that the class is not specific to libertarianism; it simply covers the history and content of the constitution, and applies it to our current government.)
I realized I should clarify the statement at the beginning of that comment; I was speaking in general about left and right points of view, not specifically about those that you posted. *Some* of the statements made in the posted articles are perfectly reasonable; however, those statements are the ones which least fit into the left-right model, despite being intended to bash the other side.
I agree completely. I realize that perfectly reasonable people will disagree with my point of view. I’m sure, for example, that many of my European friends will take strong exception to one of those points of view. It’s just that so many people these days seem to gravitate to one extreme or the other without thinking simply because they think they have to fall into one of two categories of thinking. I think that’s sad, and dangerous too.
-ian
But the problem with Brooks’ argument is not his ideology, it’s that he’s wrong on the facts.
European growth has not been that much worse than US growth over the past decade, and the numbers are dragged down by Germany, the sick man of Europe. If you take a look at the countries that represent everything that Brooks opposes, Scandinavia, unemployment there is lower than in the US. In many European countries (even the much-criticized France), productivity as measured on a per-hour-worked basis is higher than in the US.
Now it is true that per-capita purchasing power in the EU is only about 70% of what it is in the US (though because the US has greater extremes of rich and poor, I suspect that the difference is much less when you use the median instead of the mean). And in the US, your chances of dying before age 60 are higher than they are in any EU member state.
There are many things that the US does better than Europe (small entrepreneural companies, research universities, second chances, though the new bankruptcy bill is going to change the last point). There are many things that Europe does better than the US. To me, people who cannot acknowledge the latter are extremists (as are people who cannot acknowledge the former). Brooks seems ideologically incapable of acknowledging that Americans have anything to learn from the Europeans.
I also agree that we have something to learn from the Europeans—in fact, I’d even say we have a lot to learn from them. However, economics isn’t one of them.
Thomas Friedman has a great piece (as usual) on this subject today: “[T]his is a bad time for France and friends to lose their appetite for hard work – just when India, China and Poland are rediscovering theirs.”