re: #390 Occasional Reader

That’s a pretty good article….

On the growth effects of a large expansion of government, the European social welfare states present a window on our potential future: standards of living permanently 30% lower than ours. Rounding off perceived rough edges of our economic system may well be called for, but a major, perhaps irreversible, step toward a European-style social welfare state with its concomitant long-run economic stagnation is not.

I think the verbiage is a little overblown though. I think “radicalism” is a little too much. I’d replace it with recklessness. We all know that he ran on a European socialist agenda (socialized medicine, etc). I was originally pleased after the inauguration when he started talking in practical terms; maybe this isn’t the right time to raise taxes, social entitlements might have to wait, etc. Over the past few weeks it looks like he’s getting ambitious again and that could be dangerous.