Europe: the Democrats' vison for America

I've posted recently about the economic disaster that is continental Western Europe. An obvious point, but not one raised often enough, is that Europe is a model for where the Democrats would like to take America. The policies in place in Europe are exactly the policies advocated by the American left. Europe provides a good laboratory so we can see what the policies do without having to try them ourselves.

AJ Strata gives us a peek at David Brooks' subscription-only column* (this is legitimate "Fair Use," so don't hassle me!) on the topic.

Forgive me for making a blunt and obvious point, but events in Western Europe are slowly discrediting large swaths of American liberalism. Most of the policy ideas advocated by American liberals have already been enacted in Europe: generous welfare measures, ample labor protections, highly progressive tax rates, single-payer health care systems, zoning restrictions to limit big retailers, and cradle-to-grave middle-class subsidies supporting everything from child care to pension security. And yet far from thriving, continental Europe has endured a lost decade of relative decline.…..

But it is not the absolute standard of living that determines a people’s morale, but the momentum. It is happier to live in a poor country that is moving forward - where expectations are high - than it is to live in an affluent country that is looking back.

Right now, Europeans seem to look to the future with more fear than hope. . As Anatole Kaletsky noted in The Times of London, in continental Europe “unemployment has been stuck between 8 and 11 percent since 1991 and growth has reached 3 percent only once in those 14 years.”

The Western European standard of living is about a third lower than the American standard of living, and it’s sliding. European output per capita is less than that of 46 of the 50 American states and about on par with Arkansas.

There is little prospect of robust growth returning any time soon.

…..Europe’s population is aging and shrinking. By 2040, the European median age will be around 50. Nearly a third of the population will be over 65. Public spending on retirees will have to grow by a third, sending Europe into a vicious spiral of higher taxes and less growth.

*CORRECTION: The Brooks column is not subscription-only; it's here. Free for first 7 days after publication, I believe.

1984 comes 21 years late

The British government wants to monitor the movement of every car in Britain by GPS.

Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, revealed that pilot areas will be selected in just 24 months' time as he made clear his determination to press ahead with a national road pricing scheme.

Each of Britain's 24 million vehicles would be tracked by satellite if a variable "pay-as-you-drive" charge replaces the current road tax.

The purported reason for this gross invasion of privacy is to make a road tax proportional to the amount of driving people do. But a gas tax accomplishes the same thing, with the additional benefit of encouraging fuel-efficient cars. Another use would be to charge additional fees for driving in congested central city areas during peak hours, but this can be managed (and already is in some places) with toll booths and electronic tags.

Similar horrible ideas have been proposed in California, where the insane left-wing legislators' lust for more taxes has eclipsed their interest in both civil liberties and the environment.

Patterico and the Jawa Report have more. A big roundup at FullosseousFlap's.

HT: The Agitator via Alarming News.

AlJazeera.com: Kerry to push for impeachment of Bush

I don't know why this isn't getting more coverage from U.S. papers, and I'm not entirely sure Al Jazeera can be trusted, but they are claiming that John Kerry will press for the impeachment of President Bush.

Failed presidential candidate Kerry advised that he will begin the presentation of his case for President Bush's impeachment to Congress, on Monday.

Kerry said of the ["Downing Street Memo"]: "When I go back [to Washington] on Monday, I am going to raise the issue. I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."

Thoughts:

1) Why is this not news for the mainstream U.S. media? The once and wanna-be future king of the Democrats wants to impeach the President!
2) How will Moveon.org handle this? Their reason for being, and the origin of their name, is the belief that the President is too important to be distracted by allegations of little things like sexual harassment, rape, perjury, and obstruction of justice. Will they change their name to Dontmoveon.org? Too late -- it's taken!

HT: PoliPundit.

UPDATE: This may be a hoax. Aljazeera.com is not the web site of the well known Al-Jazeera TV network. Other minor news organizations such as NewsMax and "Kavkaz" carrying similar Kerry quotes. INDCJournal doesn't buy it. Why is the mainstream media neither reporting the story nor debunking it?

The trouble with Europe

Victor Davis Hanson on the problem with Europe:

The E.U. constitution — and its promise of a new Europe — supposedly offered a corrective to the Anglo-American strain of Western civilization. More government, higher taxes, richer entitlements, pacifism, statism and atheism would make a more humane and powerful new continent of over 400 million to outpace a retrograde United States.

Instead, Europe faces a declining population, unassimilated minorities, low growth, high unemployment and an inability to defend itself, either militarily or morally. Somehow the directorate of the European Union has figured out how to have too few citizens while having too many of them out of work.

HT: Ace.

Milton Friedman and Peter Tosh

Q. What do a geriatric midget and a dead Jamaican have in common?

A. Legalize it!

Milton Friedman, who never had an opinion I didn't agree with,

leads a list of more than 500 economists from around the U.S. who today will publicly endorse a Harvard University economist's report on the costs of marijuana prohibition and the potential revenue gains from the U.S. government instead legalizing it and taxing its sale. Ending prohibition enforcement would save $7.7 billion in combined state and federal spending, the report says, while taxation would yield up to $6.2 billion a year.

Full report here. I've been trying to make this argument, often without much documentation, for years. I'm glad to have this research at hand now.

But Friedman goes further:

"There is no logical basis for the prohibition of marijuana," the economist says, "$7.7 billion is a lot of money, but that is one of the lesser evils. Our failure to successfully enforce these laws is responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in Colombia. I haven't even included the harm to young people. It's absolutely disgraceful to think of picking up a 22-year-old for smoking pot. More disgraceful is the denial of marijuana for medical purposes."

and

"I've long been in favor of legalizing all drugs," he says, but not because of the standard libertarian arguments for unrestricted personal freedom. "Look at the factual consequences: The harm done and the corruption created by these laws...the costs are one of the lesser evils."

HT: TalkLeft, who until now never had an opinion Friedman did agree with.

Ted Turner: real American hero

Ronald Reagan? Ha!

It was Ted Turner who ended the cold war. At least in Ted's opinion.

We have honored Ted here before, for his $1 billion... "uh, I might have to reduce that a little"... "uh, would you take a rain check on that?"... gift to the United Nations Foundation, a group whose mission is to produce propaganda

Telling the Story
In cooperation with the Foundation's sister organization, the Better World Fund, sponsoring or conducting outreach efforts aimed at educating the public about the UN's unique role in addressing global issues and forging international
cooperation.

to make people believe the U.N. is doing good things rather than taking bribes, protecting murderous dictators, and raping the natives. But we apparently neglected to mention his greatest achievement: ending the cold war.

In this same article, Turner complains about CNN doing too much coverage of "perverts," and that he doesn't want rapes and murders to be emphasized. I guess that means CNN should close down its U.N. desk?

HT: IPF.

Ben Stein on Deep Throat

Meow!

HT: Ace.

UPDATE: Peggy Noonan with a more balanced view.