If America becomes European, what will Europe do?

Some people, watching President Obama's actions toward the leaders of Western European nations, believe that the President has written Europe off as "the past", even as his policies bring us closer to the European model. Others are not sure why the President snubs our allies.

Jonah Goldberg thinks Europe would be in deep trouble if America europeanized.  

From what I can tell, everyone agrees that you can’t have Europeanization without European-size governments. . . .

To be fair, liberals insist conservatives are wrong to think that Europeanizing America will necessarily come at any significant cost. New York Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman says that, in exchange for only a tiny bit less growth, Europeans buy a whole lot of security and comfort. Economists such as Stanford’s Michael Boskin say Europeans have a standard of living about 30 percent lower than ours and are stagnating. Others note that the structural unemployment rate in Europe, particularly for young people (it’s over 20 percent in many countries), is socially devastating.

Obviously, I’m in the conservative camp. But I think the debate misses something. We can’t become Europe unless someone else is willing to become America

Look at it this way. My seven-year-old daughter has a great lifestyle. She has all of her clothes and food bought for her. She goes on great vacations. She has plenty of leisure time. A day doesn’t go by where I don’t look at her and feel envious of how good she’s got it compared to me. But here’s the problem: If I decide to live like her, who’s going to take my place?

Europe is a free-rider. It can only afford to be Europe because we can afford to be America. . . .

Read the whole thing.

Thomas Sowell:

It is important that young children be able to rely on their parents completely — and equally important that grown children not be able to.

Otherwise, they will never be able to care for their own children. But dependency can be awfully comfortable. Ever wonder if dependency on government contributes to the dramatically falling birth rates in European countries? Could be that many adults there don't ever feel really "adult" because they have the government to take care of them.

The fiscal crisis developing in parts of Europe seems not to be affecting Scandinavia as much (well, except for Iceland). One reason may be that the climate forces people to face reality to a certain extent, and to cooperate with each other on a local level. Local cooperation can be a good thing for society. And people there can be very harsh toward those whom they consider to be "free-loaders". Perhaps some residual "Protestant Work Ethic" still manifests itself in "progressive" Scandinavia. And recently, the Swedish government, in particular, has been lessening governmental burdens on business. Kind of the opposite of what is happening here (except for well-connected, favored corporations which get special deals from the government).

Some European leaders seem to be struggling to adjust to President Obama's international priorities and actions. They had a hard enough time when Donald Rumsfeld announced that we would be moving some military bases out of Western Europe. It can be a shock to lose "adult" support suddenly. Europe may soon find itself losing American support at a time which is inconvenient, to say the least.