This may seem an odd time to bring it up, what with America looking increasingly irrelevant abroad and doomed to fiscal calamity at home by endless government deficits and debt, but prospects for this country are actually looking up. In fact, events here and across the pond in Europe suggest that America is on the cusp of a new era of prosperity at home and influence abroad. Before you conclude The Examiner’s editors have completely lost their bearings, consider the following, beginning with Europe. Just before the Middle East erupted, European leaders made headlines by repudiating the pernicious gaggle of nostrums collectively known as multiculturalism. British Prime Minister David Cameron put it best: “Europe needs to wake up to what is happening in our own countries. … We have even tolerated these segregated communities behaving in ways that run counter to our values. … We’ve been too cautious, frankly even fearful, to stand up to them.” Along with this long-overdue recognition, the major powers of Europe are also coming to grips with the reality that they can no longer afford the welfare states they established a century ago. Britain, France and Germany struggle with declining birthrates, high unemployment and stagnant economies, even as Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy and Greece stagger under the weight of insolvency.
In Asia, Japan remains mired in the statist cement of hobbled growth. India has an admirable entrepreneurial spirit but suffers nearly unimaginable social ills. China, for all its economic growth, now fears the onset of inflation, not to mention growing political unrest fostered by glaring income disparities and the long-term vulnerability of an oppressive regime grounded in an obsolete ideology. As for Russia, gangster government is simply not a viable long-term option for regime survival or broad-based economic prosperity.
Which brings us to America and the conflict between taxpayers and tax consumers in state capitols around the country and here in the national capital. In Wisconsin, three-fourths of those surveyed this week view as “fair” Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals to require public employees to pay more of the cost of their already generous tax-funded pensions and health care benefits. Walker, who was elected last year along with a new Republican majority in Wisconsin’s state legislature on a promise to seek such reforms, is following the lead of Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey. Christie has shown since his election in 2009 that taxpayers clearly understand that state and local government spending, debt and taxes have gotten out of control and must be reduced, and that public employee unions are loud and big, but ultimately self-serving obstacles to needed change.
Change in America tends to come from the bottom up, and it clearly is gaining momentum across the country. Even in Washington, political momentum is behind the Republican House that is leading the way in reducing federal spending and debt. America is still and will continue to be the best place for smart money and smart people. If you doubt it, just think of the alternatives.
