When I first came to the USA 40 years ago, I, like most Europeans, regarded it as extraordinary and unique. It was not just the scale and wealth. The political and cultural life was imbued with a spirit of individualism and self-reliance. Free enterprise was more than a good idea for a successful economy. It was almost a moral view. American people genuinely and understandably believed that their country was exceptional and wonderful.
I still admire America. As a Briton, I remain grateful for its vital part in defeating Hitler’s Germany. America still has vigour and energy. But, as an outsider, it seems to me that America has significantly changed in its culture and way of life. It is more like Europe. It is no longer so much a breed apart.
Why? I think that part of the reason is that America, like European countries before it, has come to have a welfare state that influences the lives and culture of millions of its people.
In America, as in all the advanced world, there is now an extensive and expensive welfare benefit system. Welfare benefits take a variety of forms, from food stamps in the USA to social insurance in much of Europe. But the common unintended consequence is that almost all advanced countries now have high unemployment rates – much higher than before they had highly developed welfare systems. Often the true extent of the unemployment does not appear in the official numbers. It is hidden in much higher numbers of those registered as disabled or those who have taken early retirement on government pensions.
All advanced countries have also created public housing which, over and over again, has begun with high ambitions and ended with drug gangs, graffiti and fear. Many public housing blocks have been literally blown up because they became so disastrous. This has happened in France and Britain as well as the USA.
Around the world, most children are now educated in schools run by the local or national government. The education is often of a low standard with the result that 18 percent of 15 year olds in these countries are “functionally illiterate” according to the OECD. In America, the rate is only fractionally better at 16.6 percent.
Worldwide, governments are also largely in control of how people pay for and receive healthcare. Usually, people are legally required to pay for healthcare coverage in a way that is regulated by government. In the most government-controlled healthcare system – the British one – the waste, inferior survival rates and rationing are shocking. Nearly all advanced countries are struggling with the exponentially rising cost of their healthcare systems.
Meanwhile, single parenting has also increased enormously in the advanced countries of the world. This is an area in which the USA leads. It is the single parenting capital of the world. This global boom in single parenting is another unintended consequence of the welfare state take-over.
It all amounts to a fundamental gear change in world history – a silent revolution. It is profoundly changing the way people live and the way they think about themselves.
More people are alone and lonely than ever before. More people are unemployed and demoralised. More people are illiterate than would be the case if the government take-over had not happened. People are taxed far more and they look to the government to supply their needs – like a child looks to his or her parents for food. The idea of being ruggedly independent has diminished. The concept of mutual help within families has faded, as has the idea of charitable or mutual help. Many people feel that they have contracted out the charitable side of their nature to the state. All they have to do to maintain an idea of themselves as decent people is to argue that the government should spend more or do things better.
America has joined in this worldwide trend because, I think, it is part of the nature of democracy to move towards government-provided welfare. America resisted the trend more than other major countries because of its tradition of independence. But now America, too, has succumbed.
James Bartholomew is the author of the newly published book, The Welfare of Nations (Cato Institute $24.95). Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
