Monday, November 28, 2005

The Economist Magazine – Grand apologist for Europe

The venerable British rag has been a problem for a number of years.

by StFerdIII

Apparently the Economist confers some intellectual gravitas to those who read it. You hear it at dinner parties when a bore sonorously intones, ‘well you know darling…I do read the Economist…and they think..’, and their listeners are suppose to fall to the ground and genuflect in amazement at the coming ‘sagesse’. So the Economist myth dies hard. Sure some articles on trade, economics and finance are still pretty good. But the left–liberal political slant of the snobbish British paper is hard to miss – unless of course you are an avid reader of the New York Times or tune into the BBC or CBC. In that case you will scream that the Economist is part of the vast right wing conspiracy to impose Jewish-American capitalism on the moral, fun-loving, and superior non-American civilizations. The Economist is however boorish. Their defense of Europe is one example.

In the past 10 years the Economist has excitedly and wrongly claimed the following:
-Europeans are more productive per hour [or maybe per second?] than Americans
-Europe’s economic growth is actually quite good and is hidden by German weakness
-European socialism is preferable to American consumerism since Europeans spend less and have less debt
-Europe’s distorted labor market is not really that bad since unemployment rates are falling
-Europe runs twin economic surpluses and is therefore financially healthier than the US.

It is hard to understand why a supposed free trade supporter like the Economist would protect European socialist protectionism. None of the above points are true and it is difficult to comprehend why the Economist has for 10 years, lied to its readership. In fact for the past 10 years the story has little changed, yet Europe’s economies at one time were even shrinking and by independent observation, are far weaker today than the US economy.

Here are some inconvenient facts for the Economist and other Euro-lovers of the Socialist-Marxist view of society:
-The US economy produces, on average, 2 million jobs per year and the EU just 100.000.
-US productivity measured as output per person per annum, is 3.5 %, against less than 2 % in Europe. This means the US is getting richer and Europe is growing poorer.
-US employment rates are close to 74 % and the EU’s near 62 % [The Economist says the EU is at 65 % but the OECD and other studies dispute this, and the EU is famous for lying about employment and unemployment rates].
-US net incomes are consistently 30 % above that of Europe.
-40 % of Europeans live below U$25.000 per annum vs. 15% in the US [US poverty levels for a family of 4 are $19.000 per annum].
-US poor live on more square footage than the average European household.
-EU debt levels are equal to the US at 64 % of GDP.
-Germany and large EU countries [excepting the UK] export capital and hence jobs and investments.

In fact according to the Timbro Institute of Sweden, if the EU were a state in the USA, it would be the poorest state in the Union. This is hardly impressive to anyone who has visited Mississippi.

This is not to excuse the US which has many weaknesses. Primary concerns about the US would center on its spending. US debt levels have skyrocketed from $2 Trillion in 1985 [Federal Debt] to $8 Trillion in 2005. This is drunken and unnecessary spending on a lavish scale. Budget deficits, entitlement payments [medicare, social security], and political bribe,s [special projects, new highways and bridges, subsidizing agriculture and business etc.], are the main threats to the US economy.

In short the US must reduce its government size, reduce its taxes and spend, and start to pay down its debt. If that is true, then what should one make of Europe? Here is a Continent with more people, and a smaller economy than the US. The EU is obsessed with dirigiste capitalism – subsidizing at a far higher level than the US various agricultural and industrial enterprises and determined to limit trade. Labor and capital rigidities are famous as is the overbearing nature of a welfare state that is technically bankrupt.

The Economist’s defense of the EU is reprehensible. The EU might have some glory in certain areas, and some charms in others. But to suggest that its socio-economic model is superior or just as good as the US is utter nonsense. The riots in France, immigration problems, a non-existent military and political-business corruption, as well as lower income and living standards are just symptoms of a deeper malaise – that of the economic and moral rot induced by socialism and massive government.

Apologists for the Marxian view of the world should be ignored – including the Economist, no matter how chic it sounds at dinner parties to quote from the venerable British newssheet.