In one sense, we are worse than Europe. In Europe, everyone — rich, middle class and poor — pays a huge chunk of their income in tax to pay for Welfare State benefits. In the US, middle class Americans still believe they can have Socialism and have “the rich” pay for it.
Oui. Da. Ja.
And we are importing, as our number one and rapidly growing immigrant population, Hispanics from Mexico who have been voting socialist in that failed country for 75+ years. These people are politically ignorant, have no understanding how free markets work, have no clue what made America great, etc. They are natural Democrat voters and most of the population growth is made up of these people who will reliably vote Democrat for years to come.
Just like Europe, and because human nature is what it is, there is likely no recovery till our economy eventually implodes. It could take a few years or perhaps another generation or two to rack up enough debt to collapse the economy, but that is the likely outcome. Is it arguably much harder to shake off the horrible effects of socialism when a society has voluntarily gone down that road.
We can’t be Europeans. Europe was able to thrive, until lately, as a socialist system only because The world powerhouse freemarket society backstopped them economically and allowed them to abjure self defense by being Europe’s Defense. With the USA gone socialist there is no Powerhouse freemarket economy to backstop the illogicalities of that socialism. And the USA does not have someone else to pick up the tab for its own defense. The decline will be rapid and it will not stop at the sort of genteel socialism that USA has supported in Europe for 6o years. It will fall right into the abyss of shattering or of totalitarian dictatorship or both.
A big pet peeve of mine for years now.
Discussions of US vs. Europe spending always compare European spending to US federal spending. This drastically distorts things, as about one third of government spending here is state and local.