This op-ed about American decline by the Times’s token conservative, Ross Douthat, bothers me — particularly this part:
[I]nstead of seeking a new post-Reagan consensus, the Obama Democrats are returning to their party’s long-running pursuit of European-style social democracy — by micromanaging industry, pouring money into entitlement and welfare programs, and binding the economy in a web of new taxes and regulations.
These policies may help smooth over the inequalities that have opened in our national life since the 1970s. But they threaten to cost America its position in the world along the way.
Social democracy has its benefits, but global competitiveness isn’t one of them.
Is he seriously arguing that America’s “position in the world,” its “global competitiveness,” is more important than the well-being of our citizens? Pundits are always saying that it’s deathly important that we not let other countries get ahead of us, without explaining why we should care. Is it really so crucial that we be Number One in the world? What’s wrong with just being happy?
Why do these people have to make everything a competition?
I seriously wonder whether I’m missing something, because I just don’t get it.
Not that i agree with his sentiment, but i do understand his argument.
How competitive our economy is will, in the long-term, dictate the level of nation’s prosperity. Less revenue means an ever diminishing ability to see to our own needs.
But, i’d argue that our populaces well-being (quality of education, proper nutrition for all children, health care that doesn’t drive families into destitution, etc.) is a far larger determinant of our national competitiveness.
That’s something most laisez-faire capitalists neglect to figure into the whole equation of what makes a nation’s marketplace wholly strong and competitive.
rob@egoz.org
The people in a position to care about global competitiveness generally don’t have to worry about where their next meal is coming from or how they’re going to pay their medical bills. It’s class blindness.