Note this passage from an enlightening story about the Dutch elections:
This confusion at the ballot box underscores the difficulties Europe faces in adapting to an ever more globalized world. Voters across Europe feel deep anxiety over how to preserve their cultures without closing their doors to immigrants, how to protect their cherished welfare states without becoming an economic dinosaur, and how to channel the energies of the free market without turning into a cold, uncaring continent.
What is "cold" and "uncaring," one would think, would be to devolve into "an economic dinosaur." A business motivated by profit has far more reason to treat you well and to give you good service than does the government. If your accountant does a bad job and treats you poorly, what do you do? You get a different accountant. If the IRS does a bad job and treats you poorly, what do you do? Go to the other IRS?
An economy is like a shark: it must keep moving forward or it dies. Europe can decide to maintain its massive welfare state that stifles creativity and innovation and thus slowly fall into decay, or it can liberalize its economy to promote innovation and productivity and face the fact that, yes, there will be more uncertainty and more need for hard work. There is no doubt that the market produces "creative destruction." Some focus more on the "creative" part, others on the "destruction." I have sympathies with both camps. One should not pretend that this is an easy choice, but it does seem like a clear one. Europe has two futures. In one future, it reinvigorates its dedication to political and economic liberalism and the grand history of Europe. In the other future, it dies of economic and cultural euthanasia.
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