Falling Behind: My Two Cents on Missing the Boat

America has fallen behind the times. Thank God – it may be the only thing that saves us.

For many years, the United States has been a world leader on many fronts. From Blues to blue jeans, McNuggets to military hardware, America has been the pace-setter for a long time except for one: the values-neutral culture of dependency that has pervaded Europe the last three decades.

Arguably, the EU might not have ever existed were it not for the defensive umbrella of American arms that kept Europe peaceful and secure since the end of the Second World War. It is certain that the bulk of deferred defense spending in Europe funded the emergence of a European lifestyle remarkably undistracted by the near-constant warfare of prior centuries.

But the whole “EUtopia” bit was an over-reach – to work, external threats had to stay dormant, and they have not. Add that to a parallel growth of internal security threats, and the butter-before-bullets way of life across Europe is spreading thin.

In Greece, Portugal, Spain, and Ireland the worldwide recession did to governments what the housing market collapse did to homeowners: they owed more than they owned, and couldn’t make the payments. Burdened by expanding entitlements (Greek civil servant salaries and pensions exceed 51% of the budget, for example), budget deficits last year for these countries were between ten and fifteen percent. With populations actually shrinking in all four of these nations, productivity is unlikely to grow enough to overcome the shortfalls.

In France and Italy, gypsies – those romantic Roma, wandering through a borderless Europe even before Europe was borderless – are being pushed out of towns and caravans to counter crime and unemployment problems apparently inherent to a large community of jobless non-citizens.

France is on fire – literally – because the government proposes raising the lowest retirement age in Europe to a point where it is still the lowest retirement age in Europe. College students are setting things ablaze to protest that they would rather pay more in taxes to support the pensions of their elders than simply have to work another couple of years like everyone else.

In Germany, Chancellor Merkel has declared multiculturalism a disaster. To be a German, apparently, it will now be necessary to speak German, vote German, and do German things. Critics call this a re-emergence of German nationalism, but it has become plain at least to the Germans that having enclaves of many nations within one border does not a nation make, something Bismarck figured out over a century ago in the same country.

The United Kingdom has recently announced draconian cuts in spending in order to avoid sharing the fate of the Continentals – slashing defense, entitlements, and programs.

The causes are clear: runaway spending, escalating entitlements, declining populations, growing security threats within and without. EUtopia is collapsing under the weight of the hubris that created it – that all could benefit from the work of a diminishing few, and that the government would always be the safety net.

The United States is teetering on the brink of this same collapse, saved only by the fact that Americans were too stubborn to lead the charge into the valley of fiscal death – not that the US isn’t in serious danger of following the European path into ruin. The recession has aggravated the existing imbalance in revenue and entitlements in the US – where 97% of taxes are paid by less than 50% of the public – and American debt is almost 90% of GDP. Like Europe, the US has a large body of itinerant non-citizens with high unemployment rates, and a social pension program in danger of collapsing under the weight of an aging population.

All of this was apparent even before the 2008 election, and Americans voted for change. The nature of that change, however, has become apparent, and citizens are increasingly having none of it. Despite the clear EUtopian example of what could happen, our President and his Party have expanded entitlements, obstructed efforts to secure American borders, ignored the looming Social Security collapse, promoted multicultural tribalisms, and trivialized the threats to America and Americans from terrorists and other nations.

The voting public, nonetheless, is told that the only reason they don’t support all of this is that they aren’t smart enough, or aren’t trying hard enough – and that may actually be the unique genius of the American electorate.

We may have fallen behind, but it might be that this particular boat is one worth missing.

David J. Aland is a retired Naval Officer with a graduate degree in National Security Affairs from the U. S. Naval War College.

” ... the values-neutral culture of dependency ... “

Perfect political description of a political zombie!
State dependent, mind-controlled robots, unable to stand on the two feet that God gave them.

Very good essay, but with a very optimistic summary:

I sure hope it turns out to be true.

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