The socialistic US
John Plender has a good article in the FT in which he points out that in many ways the stereotype beloved of the right (and left) that the US is raw free market capitalist and Europe socialist is pretty inaccurate.He concludes:
"Old" Europe may be flagging, as it staggers under the fiscal burden of the stability and growth pact. It may be painfully slow in tackling structural problems. Yet the ballooning risk in the US experiment is such that stereotypical views of the US and Europe may soon need to be revised. The theory of US imperial overstretch is also due for a comeback.
This is surely right. One of the things that most surprises on a trip to the Land of the Free is the sheer weight of government and other regulation. Even more impressive is the amount that exists but is hidden, for example in the supply of prescription medicines.
There may be a case for doing it this way, rather than through explicit government interevention. But at least the latter -- common in Europe - has a veneer of democratic accountability.
posted by Matthew @ 7/25/2003 10:48:00 AM
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