The idea is how Europe’s healthcare is so wonderful, yet the high taxes and universal social benefits have NOT damaged their blossoming economy.
Anyone know of a rebuttal? The smokescreen is so thick and slickly laid out I can’t see through it.
Social justice and progress only go hand in hand when there are property rights. Social justice for the recipients of redistribution comes at the expense of social justice for the producers. It’s only a just system if you cover one of your eyes when looking at it.
Also, he’s full of crap, because people in Europe don’t have anywhere near the standard of living Americans have. They have accepted a lower standard of living in return for “social justice”. It is a tradeoff, and that is not what he is telling his readers in his blog.
What I got from the article is that Krugman believes that the US and Europe are more or less the same, only they pay higher taxes then we do for universal health care. With that being said, is that really supposed to be a good argument for universal health care?
stefanmikarlsson.blogspot.com Look for an entry made on Jan. 12th at 3:18pm “Krugman On American Growth & Government Spending”. It addresses some elements of Krugman’s article.
US has better living standards, despite our huge military budget and terrible wealth-destroying health care system. This is because traditionally government has been smaller in the US. But now with government at 45% of GDP, the advantage the US had is just about gone, and the disadvantages (military, healthcare system) haven’t gone away.
I think it may show 2 things.
- American health socialism is worse than european health socialism.
- Europe has not consumed their capital stock as much as U.S.
What did Krugman say, in his article, that lead you to believe these two things?
Also, Krugman could accept a lower standard of living, or pay more taxes right now if he really wanted to help his fellow man. Nothing is stopping him from buying health care for dozens of other Americans with his income.
But like all good progressives, he wants to do good with your resources before he does anything with his own.
Honestly, these people are unbelievable sometimes.
Because the european economies are not located in europe. See the recent thread on IMF/international bank debt slavery.
The reason that their neo-imperialist colonies fly under the radar is because major trading partners are measured in nominal currency. If you buy 100lbs of cocoa beans for $.25, its not going to show up on any of these keynesian aggregates.The status quo isn’t evidence that socialism works, its evidence that imperialism works for the conquerers. But we already knew that.
Just look at what a european consumes in his or her day to day life… most if it can be traced to the third world in some non-free market setting.