National Review: Prime Minister Obama (Mark Steyn)

Steyn poses the question: will European statism supplant the American Way?

According to Steyn, President Obama is on a mission to Europeanize America. What exactly does that mean you may ask?

Well, part of it sounds pretty sweet to me. Unemployment rates in the double digits are not an uncommon phenomenon in Europe. In fact, the article makes it seem like European's have a strong aversion to work in general.

"There are government-mandated maximum 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of paid vacation,more public holidays, and, in the event that, after all that, some unfortunate clerical error still shows the calendar with an occasional five-week, you can always strike. The upshot is that, while a working American puts in an average 1800 hours a year, a working German puts in 1350 hours a year--or 25 percent less."

The welfare program is so good in Europe that a life of leisure really is possible. The government gives its citizens money for their health, kids, elderly parents, etc. to the point where the author wonders if Europeans can even function as autonomous adults. He thinks not: "[Europeanization] corrodes self-reliance very quickly, to the point where even basic survival instincts can be bred out of society in a generation or two."

So what has enabled Europe to lead this pampered adolescent existence? Because they are well-connected with America--the work horse of the world that has underwritten the easy lifestyle of the Europeans. Steyn sees Obama's large social reform initiatives to be a step towards turning America into an unsustainable nation of low productivity and self-reliance. However, unlike the Europeans, America will have no one else to rely on.