Newsweek: We are all socialists now

Finally, a mainstream publication (or in this case, a left leaning publication) has come out and said the obvious: we're quickly heading down the road of European socialism.

It's the best piece on the topic that I've seen yet. The money paragraph:

Whether we like it or not—or even whether many people have thought much about it or not—the numbers clearly suggest that we are headed in a more European direction. A decade ago U.S. government spending was 34.3 percent of GDP, compared with 48.2 percent in the euro zone—a roughly 14-point gap, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In 2010 U.S. spending is expected to be 39.9 percent of GDP, compared with 47.1 percent in the euro zone—a gap of less than 8 points. As entitlement spending rises over the next decade, we will become even more French.

That should scare the croissant right out of you.  President Obama is in a bind ... there's no doubt that we need massive short term government spending to keep the recession from deepening; everyone agrees on that, though the amount is up for debate.

But long term this spending and debt accumulation is going to suffocate growth -- much like it has in Europe -- and leave us in the tenuous position of having a no growth economy at the same time entitlement costs balloon.  That is a recipe for disaster.

Comments

[mitch]

maybe i am still in the glow of an obama win, but i think he has no idea how to fail and that all plans, policies, etc will work out for the best...then again, i also defended sammy sosa when people first talked about him taking steroids

[Nick]

Mitche, you were so on point during the campaign ... and now you're just flailing. He was a great campaigner, but governing is a whole different story. Just ask Jimmy Carter.

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