Policy Solipsism: Broadband Policy Edition
If you ask me, one of the most disturbing trends in American public discourse is the incredibly provincialism and solipsism of a lot of our policy debate. The idea that other countries are doing better than we are in various ways is totally off the radar. Instead, when foreign countries are mentioned at all you get stuff like this:
“We have fundamental philosophical differences. We’re in an era of unfunded liabilities,” said John Culberson , R-Texas. “This stimulus is really a Trojan horse. It’s part of a plan that would turn the United States into France.”
France! A country so impoverished that its citizens are fleeing in droves, washing up on our shores desperate to experience the good life as it’s lived in suburban Houston.
I was reminded of that by this post from Tim Lee pointing out that broadband internet access in the United States is a lot better and cheaper than it was nine years ago so he “can’t get too upset about the possibility that in 2018 Americans might be limping along with 2 gbps broadband connections while the average Japanese family has a 20 gbps connection.” I, for one, am pretty upset about that possibility. The United States isn’t a poor country dealing with some objective shortfall of national resources. And yet across a whole variety of dimensions—from broadband speed to train quality to the cleanliness of streets to life expectancy to the crime rate—we fall far short of standards that are reached elsewhere. What we do have, on the other hand, is the richest multi-millionaires in the world. And an awful lot of people’s first instinct is to try to explain these things away or explain why it would be impossible to bring some of these quality of life features to the United States.
It seems to me people would do better to get more upset.
93 Responses to “Policy Solipsism: Broadband Policy Edition”
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January 30th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
We have had at least a couple of generations of folks who have been taught that other countries are not as good (and to suggest otherwise is a form of “America-bashing”). Also, other countries are boring, and who cares how they do it? And they are all socialist, or something…
I would suggest this is a condition of Empire: you can be a Sender and not have to Receive. Most Americans just don’t have a baseline of experience or learning about other countries, or at least, enough knowledge to be able to distinguish comforting “Team America” propaganda from any facts.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
Re: I, for one, am pretty upset about that possibility.
I’m not. IMO, it’s in the same category as complaining the German cars are engineered to do 140mph while most American cars top out around 100.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
“France! A country so impoverished that its citizens are fleeing in droves, washing up on our shores desperate to experience the good life as it’s lived in suburban Houston.”
Touché, Matt! I’m sure Culberson’s constituents in Bellaire would rather be enjoying the good life as it’s lived in Clichy-sous-Bois.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Solipsism,chauvinism,xenophobia,tribalism,nationalism,arrogance,ignorance,provincialism,jingoism,demogoguery,,stupidity.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Well, one place to start would be to give people $40 rebates for the DTV transition.
After the House Republicans blocked the bill to do that a few days ago, the Senate today unanimously passed –for a SECOND time — the bill to extend the digital TV transition and to fund $40 rebates for the 6.5 million who haven’t received them.
The bill goes back to the House –for the Second Time — next week.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:43 pm
I know, US political discourse, where you can insult people by calling them lunatic like Mikhail Gorbachev. Because in the US Gorbachev is seen as just another communist nut, even by Congressional democrats and liberal blogs.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
What we do have, on the other hand, is the richest multi-millionaires in the world.
And, the local upper class has screwed the pooch seriously enough that we’re not even producing future trust-fund scumbags like we used to.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Not exactly reasonable to compare a relatively comfortable American suburb to a particularly rough French town. If you were to compare Bellaire to Neuilly-sur-Seine or East Baltimore to Clichy-sous-Bois then we might have an interesting discussion.
In either case I’d side with the French counterpart. In the more impoverished cases you would at least have access to decent public transport and health coverage. And in the wealthier examples you’d have access to, well, even better public transport and health services!
No need to bring any straw men to the show.
January 30th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Stefan, are you saying Gorby wasn’t a communist?
January 30th, 2009 at 6:59 pm
What is so hard to understand Matt? The US has a political and cultural foundation which maximizes the median voters’ welfare. That is why we have the highest median income, lower middle class crime (like property crime), higher life expectancy adjusted for class, the world most elite education system and on and on. You may hate this American system but why the need to be so disingenuous.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
“higher life expectancy adjusted for class” . . . I’m loving it.
What’s so hard to understand, Gordon? The US isn’t maximizing the *mean* voter’s welfare, which is what you want to do if you’re actually interested in maximizing human well-being.
The “median voter” — pish-tosh.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:16 pm
“Higher life expectancy adjusted for class” . . . I’m loving that.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:21 pm
God bless rampant capitalism.
Don’t mind me, I’ve been drinking.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Hey! Culberson’s district includes a some urban parts of Houston, too, you know. Even in Houston, the richest neighborhoods are close-in.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
I don’t know — I kinda like our impoverished shitholes.
You meet a much better quality of person than on Capitol Hill, on Wall Street or in the Boardrooms of Houston.
As the Devil said “There’s a price on that, Faustus”
January 30th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
“No need to bring any straw men to the show.”
Fair enough, Kurt. This might be a more objective comparison, if someone can find the data:
1) How many French nationals have moved to Culberson’s district (or suburban Houston in general) over the last several years?
2) How many Americans from Culberson’s district (or suburban Houston in general) have moved to France over the same time period?
My guess would be that more French nationals have moved to the Houston area than the reverse, but I’d be interested in seeing the numbers.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
Actually, I would seriously doubt whether Gorbachev was ever a communist. In fact, I suspect that few genuine communists survived the purges.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
So what exactly is the threat? Men will have to wear frilly underpants? Notice how this threat of becoming “like France” is never followed by any examples of particularly French problems. I’d like to see inside the minds of people that think that being “like France” is a bad thing. What do they see?
January 30th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
DaveInHackensack, wouldn’t it be nice if there were actual pertinent data to address this question—life expectancy, quality of life, that kind of thing—rather than something as obtuse and tortuous as who’s expatriating where? If only there were organizations to gather that kind of information we could really have a discussion, rather than a bunch of ridiculous diddling.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Having actually lived in France (Paris, 20th arrondisement, near Nation) for 14 years and now back in NYC (lower Manhattan) for 18 months, I can affirm that
(1) health care and public transportation are MUCH better in France;
(2) broadband is easier to obtain and cheaper in France;
(3) the economy overall is much more flexible here, but job security here leaves much to be desired (I was recently let go with zero days’ notice – and three weeks severance (much less generous than what I would have received in France, and unemployment compensation is not sufficient to continue to pay rent while looking for a job in this environment).
I could go on, but Matt’s point about American’s not seeing much beyond our shores is well taken. Not that everything is better overseas, but surely the opposite is not true either.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
“And yet across a whole variety of dimensions—from broadband speed to train quality to the cleanliness of streets to life expectancy to the crime rate—we fall far short of standards that are reached elsewhere. What we do have, on the other hand, is the richest multi-millionaires in the world. And an awful lot of people’s first instinct is to try to explain these things away or explain why it would be impossible to bring some of these quality of life features to the United States. ”
This is why I don’t live in the US anymore, and don’t particularly have any desire to do so. Five years in Japan with it’s eminently walkable neighborhoods and good train system, has made me realize how much Indiana sucked. Sure, I can’t go shooting or blow shit up in the backyard anymore, but that’s a small price to pay. Not that Japan doesn’t have its own set of problems.
And trying to tell people this brings about one of two responses: either they say they’d like to go somewhere else but can’t afford it or don’t want to leave family, or they turtle up and say they like America better because it’s better than everywhere else, even though some of them haven’t even been out of the state in years.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
How many Americans from Culberson’s district (or suburban Houston in general) have moved to France over the same time period?
To be fair, Americans could move half the distance between Culberson’s district and France and have quite a bit improvement. YOu don’t need to move all the way to France. Whereas for French people moving to the US, I presume Houston would be low on their list.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
We need an agnostic view of other countries and their experiences–neither dismissive nor reverential. The fact that France, for example, has better outcomes than the US in many important facets tells us (as an opener) that better outcomes are in fact possible. Adaptive preference formation, in this case the idea that we don’t really want those outcomes or that they’d imply giving up something more important, is infantile as Matt notes. But the opposite conceit, that every superior outcome is available to us if only we decided to achieve it, is (if certainly not infantile) tone-deaf and itself a kind of imperial hubris.
January 30th, 2009 at 8:43 pm
You know, I criticize Matt a lot. Mostly for being young, smug, having bad taste in music and film, and failing to proof his work thoroughly (or at all). But then he writes a post like this and I not only have to say he’s 100% right, but have to conclude that his heart is in the right place after all. When know nothing Rethugs like this complain about the Europeanization of the US, I can only mordantly chuckle and mutter “If only.”
January 30th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
The quality of life things are even of secondary importance, as important as they are. What’s even more important is that a lot of these roadblocked issues (broadband access, bad telecommunications industry, healthcare costs) are signs of that we can’t get our economic act together. It’s more important (apparently) to reward the brain-dead executive team at SBC than to have even a second class connectivity infrastructure. It’s more important (apparently) that Dr. Schmuckus, mediocre plastic surgeon of Oklahoma City gets a new BMW every year than the US have an auto industry.
January 30th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
“rather than something as obtuse and tortuous as who’s expatriating where?”
If it’s so obtuse and torturous than why did Matt bring it up?
“Whereas for French people moving to the US, I presume Houston would be low on their list.”
Why would you presume that? You think they’d find better economic opportunities in, say, New York City?
January 30th, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I am not so sure that Houston would be all that low on a hypothetical Frenchman’s list of places to live in America. It has a French cultural center, the Alliance Française de Houston. According to their website, the Alliance has been “promoting French language and culture in Houston since 1923” and it appears to be very active. There are more classes and events listed on their website than for the Alliance in Los Angeles (where I live) or Berkeley. Also, there are several good French bakeries there and there is also excellent food, music and good museums.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Why would you presume that? You think they’d find better economic opportunities in, say, New York City?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Houston’s a shithole. Kinda like Newark, but muggier. Houston makes you wish you were in Dallas, and Dallas really sucks too.
Can you tell I’m from Austin?
January 30th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I’m pretty upset.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Don Williams: There may be 6.5 mil unprepared, but only 2 million coupons requests (for 1.2 mil households) are outstanding. I agree with you though, that the govt should provide them as they said they would. The time for them to have funded that should’ve been a month or so ago, rather than scrambling around a couple weeks before the deadline.
In terms of Matt’s post, I don’t see what’s wrong a typical DSL connection. That seems fast enough for me. I don’t think that the ability to download stupid videos faster in higher resolution will help jump start the economy.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Well, one place to start would be to give people $40 rebates for the DTV transition.
If only someone would give Mr. Willaims a nickle for every time he’s complained about this on the internet, he wouldn’t need a $40 rebate.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Um, doesn’t France have the highest life expectancy in the world.
January 30th, 2009 at 10:49 pm
As someone who actually lives in Houston, I would be shocked if there migration rate from France to Houston weren’t greater than that from Houston to France–if only because Total has such a huge presence here.
I wouldn’t expect coastal types to know as much, but Houston is actually a pretty international and cosmopolitan place. Yes, most all of the expats here are energy professionals, but there are a ton of them–enough to support a French-centric international school, even. We get a dozen or more Broadway shows a year, have nice museums, a symphony, the opera, all the major sports teams, a first-rate university, and mixed-use urban development going in all over the place. I work for a Scottish company that frequently brings Brits over on two-year assignments…they’re free to go back when it’s over, but most end up staying permanently.
That’s not to say that America–and Houston–can’t learn from other places, and certainly, Culberson and Co.’s dismissal of all things European is pretty repulsive. But there’s a lot to like about life in Culberson’s district, and indeed, perhaps more so than there is to like about life in France.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
bottomofthe9th:
I was treating this respectfully until you told me that the U of Houston is a first-rate university…what are you basing this claim on? By any standard that makes U of H first-rate the US has over 100 first-rate universities.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
And I’m being charitable about the U of H here.
January 30th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
If we’re playing the ‘why can’t we be more like France?’ game, can we include nuclear power? Or is that considered too gauche?
January 31st, 2009 at 12:05 am
Let’s include nuclear power.
I want nuclear power, high-speed trains, and sidewalk cafes. And cheap carafes of wine with dinner.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:22 am
Showers that point straight down? Drinks with no ice? Croque messieurs? The mind reels…
January 31st, 2009 at 12:34 am
Americans could move half the distance between Culberson’s district and France and have quite a bit improvement.
At first I read this and thought, “Wouldn’t they be in the western reaches of the Atlantic Ocean?” And then I thought, “Well, it wouldn’t be as humid.” The only time I’ve been to Houston was when a certifiable friend of mine got married there one August.
Stefan, I imagine that bottomofthe9th was referring to Rice, which may have a better claim than U of H. OTOH Houston only has all major sports if you don’t count the NHL, which you might not. And the one free day I had in Houston I wanted to go to one of the great museums, but I wound up not going because after half an hour I gave up waiting for the bus to take me downtown, and this was from a main thoroughfare within the city limits. So it seemed far too car-centric for me, though that’s partly a matter of taste (though if carbon is ever priced to reflect half of its negative externalities, sprawly places like Houston will get much more expensive).
January 31st, 2009 at 12:38 am
“Also, there are several good French bakeries there and there is also excellent food, music and good museums.”
Some excellent hospitals there as well, including one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world, M.D. Anderson.
“I wouldn’t expect coastal types to know as much, but Houston is actually a pretty international and cosmopolitan place.”
Bottomofthe9th brings up some good points. For all their derision of red staters as being provincial, coastal liberals can be quite ignorant about parts of their own country.
“I was treating this respectfully until you told me that the U of Houston is a first-rate university…”
I assume he was referring to Rice University.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:45 am
#10 and #11:
Areyou sure you don’t have “mean” and “median” backwards?
#22 Jeremy:
Why do you suppose that things are so much more ordered in Japan? Is it policy? Or maybe it’s because Japan is so filled with Japanese people, who have more tendencies toward this sort of order?
As I recall, in the U.S. the Japanese are one of the lowest crime-rate ethnicities.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:58 am
Yep, Rice if fine. Forgot where it was…just don’t assume we coastal people know where things are in Texas, outside of Austin.
January 31st, 2009 at 1:39 am
Very well put Matt. You’ve been writing a lot of good stuff lately and I appreciate it.
January 31st, 2009 at 3:09 am
French bakeries, huh? That pretty much tells you everything you’ll ever need to know.
January 31st, 2009 at 5:17 am
Matt, like many pundits, is suffering from Republican Withdrawal Syndrome. That crowd was in power for so long that it became reflexive to repeat and comment upon the emissions of its designated blatherer of the day.
Culberson is a backbench member of a House minority that is powerless and marginalizing itself by the day. What he has to say about the stimulus bill, or France, or anything else, is of no consequence to anyone, except maybe his constituents and hometown media.
Did the punditocracy pay any attention to, or even bother to ridicule, obscure liberal House Democrats when the GOP ruled? Rarely, if ever. So why waste time now on this guy and his ilk?
January 31st, 2009 at 6:34 am
The idea that other countries are doing better than we are in various ways is totally off the radar
Just a few weeks ago, Yglesias implied that a Senator was unpatriotic for doing just that. Senator Schumer praised Israel’s innovative methods for avoiding civilian casualties, and Yglesias said essentially that America is number one! So you can find plenty of provincialism and solipsism on Matt’s blog too.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:23 am
Israel is definitely number one at avoiding civilian casualties. In three weeks shelling Gaza they killed only about 700 civilians, and left about a million and a half totally unscathed!
January 31st, 2009 at 7:35 am
Re: health care and public transportation are MUCH better in France
I would question the assertion that healthcare itself is better. But the healthcare payment system certainly is.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:47 am
Israel is definitely number one at avoiding civilian casualties.
Indeed they are. Compare Gaza to the recent fighting in Sri Lanka, for example. More importantly, compare the civilian casualties in Gaza to Iraq or Afghanistan. The provincial ignorance and sarcasm of Matt and Michael S. is unfortunate: the US could really learn some lessons from Israel.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:22 am
Speaking of provincialism, we visited the former East German cities of Rostock and Warnemunde this summer and were stunned to discover cities far more attractive and comfortable, with much more modern infrastructure, than around 90% of the US. In 20 years, the Germans have cleaned away the grime of Communism while in 8 years under Bush we’ve been content to slide into pig-ignorance, viciousness, and debt.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:52 am
Oh, let’s be fair. The pig-ignorance and viciousness were there to begin with. It’s just that we put them in charge for 8 years.
But I totally agree about the larger point. American definitions of “quality of life” are pretty unimaginative. “And then I want an even *bigger* house with an even *bigger* car and a *ginormous* TV.”
January 31st, 2009 at 9:57 am
This idea that we have the best, or even a good, quality of life seems a variation on (or continuation of) the traditional American isolationism of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. I mean, has anyone ever been to Cleveland? Durham? Dallas? Houston? These places are s–holes.
January 31st, 2009 at 10:02 am
Israel’s only number two at avoiding civilian casualties.
In months of launching missiles into Israel, Hamas killed NONE. Get that, not a single casualty.
And they achieved their policy objective, too.
The United States has a lot to learn from Hamas.
January 31st, 2009 at 10:18 am
So we’re clear:
Cleveland, Durham, Dallas, Houston=shitholes
Anywhere in France=perfect
Yeah, coastal elites have a much more sophisticated and nuanced worldview than does John Culberson.
January 31st, 2009 at 10:53 am
#42: Glaivester: “Why do you suppose that things are so much more ordered in Japan? Is it policy? Or maybe it’s because Japan is so filled with Japanese people, who have more tendencies toward this sort of order?
As I recall, in the U.S. the Japanese are one of the lowest crime-rate ethnicities.”
Well, speculating on this could get me accused of various forms of racism or prejudice. Japan certainly has some fucked up policies, one of which is the entire education system (of which I’m a part – ALT is I). One of their classes is translated as “moral education.” I got to sit in on one of these for middle schoolers, and it was basically a lesson on manners and what to do if some high school kids cut in front of you while you’re lining up on the train platform. Japan does a very good job of training its population to be polite about things, but part of the result is a timidness that sometimes goes too far.
I can tell you for certain that Japanese people believe that their country is more orderly because it’s full of Japanese people, and when foreigners come in, they disrupt everything. But they can’t say anything to the foreigners, because to do so would violate the code of civility they’ve had pounded into their heads since day one.
I certainly don’t want the USA to become like Japan, but it would be nice to treat people with respect and not assume that anyone standing near you is going to rob/kill you.
If you feel so inclined, you can sift through my blog, which is mostly incoherent rants about various things, but I do go into detail about life in Japan now and again.
January 31st, 2009 at 10:58 am
Re: I mean, has anyone ever been to Cleveland? Durham? Dallas? Houston? These places are s–holes.
I’ve been to all four. Cleveland is classic rustbelt decay. You can find ugly, gone-to-seed places like that in Europe too. Durham is OK (I have a friend that lives there); I’ve had a good time the couple of occasions I visited. Houston is not my cup of tea– too overwhelming, like NYC or LA– though I know people who lived there a year and didn’t mind it. Dallas (another friend lived there for three years, and I almost moved there) is a fairly good city– clean, safe, modern, good gay life, friendly people, low cost of living, etc. Of course it all depends what you are looking for, a chaqu’un son gout. Don’t presume everyone has the same likes and dislikes as you.
January 31st, 2009 at 10:58 am
“e: health care and public transportation are MUCH better in France
I would question the assertion that healthcare itself is better. But the healthcare payment system certainly is.”
Sure, the cutting edge stuff is done in the US, but for the 90% of the country that can’t afford it (or whose insurance won’t pay for it), what does it matter? I’ve had this debate with people before. They prefer a system where there’s a possibility of getting top-notch treatment, but they will never get it if it’s necessary because they can’t afford it.
Cost-benefit analysis, people. It’s your friend.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:03 am
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January 31st, 2009 at 11:06 am
bottomofthe9th, are you dense or just pretending to be?
No one has said all of France is some utopian place. No one. Let’s say that again. No one. It has flaws like any other place.
You seem to be denying, though, that some places have more flaws than others. And if you are taking offense at the idea that Durham is an exceptionally flawed place that, ceteris paribus, people would move from to elsewhere, I’m guessing you haven’t been there. Which doesn’t speak much for your credibility in claiming that Houston and Dallas are not shitholes. Places I’ve not been and would surely choose over Durham, btw.
The point of all this is not to bash any city. The point is to say that our society can be better than it is, and the idea that the USA is inherently above any example Europe or elsewhere has to offer stands in the way of adopting much needed reform.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:07 am
Re: I’ve had this debate with people before.
You don’t have to have the debate with me because I’m on the universal healthcare bandwagon too. I’ve been on it since my college days when I circulated petitions calling on Congress to act on the matter. However let’s be clear that we are talking about the healthcare financing system, which is well and truly FUBARed. The actual healthcare is as good as it is anywhere, and for most people’s needs it’s perfectly OK.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:21 am
JonF, you’re saying something important, but I think it can use more nuance.
The USA, for any given procedure, has the doctors, knowledge, and equipment to treat the patient as good as anywhere in the world. Probably better, in fact (though by the time we’re parsing that closely, inter-regional differences and the differences between individual facilities swamp out any comparisons between post-industrial nations).
Where the USA falls flat is the public health policy writ large. The major component of which is health financing. But it also involves other things–pretty much everything that’s not the Dr.-House-saves-the-day type of scenario. Preventative care, encouragement of healthy lifestyle choices, etc. Some of which can be solved by introducing health care financing reform, but which do require action on their own terms.
January 31st, 2009 at 11:37 am
The last thirty years of Reich Wing dominated policy`s of our gov`t has turned our once great nation into a a shit hole with it`s conservatism ie;religious dogmatic ideology of Christianity, and it`s hatred of anything not christian,Racism, greed, corruption, and other REICH wing shit that really doesn`t work here.This is not the country I grew up in during the 60`s and 70`s.The REICH is doing all it can to discredit Obama instead of helping him to get us out of the mess they created under the SHRUB and his anti-middle class agenda,Well we the Middle class of this country are up and out of the margin since last Novemeber and we will continue to to be a force for better health care where you won`t be punished for a previous condition,more public schools for our children that don`t have 35 to 40 kids in a class room,unionizing and the EFCA, new schools with the latest technologies,an improved infrastructure with bridges that meet or exceed code,higher education that is more affordable so our next generations can be more productive to the country and beyond it`s borders.Like it or not social issues of this country need the involvement of gov`t because it has shown me in my 50 years that Democratic gov`t works and the last 30 years of conservative dogma and it`s social issues aren`t good for America in any way shape or form because they repress the real world and shape it with conservative sanitization.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Zephyrus, that’s exactly the point I was trying to make–that in labeling Houston, Dallas, Durham, and Cleveland all as shitholes, harold was demonstrating the same sort of dismissiveness of other cultures and places that Culberson did.
Of course some cities are better than others, and I’d agree that Durham (and Cleveland) are worse places to live than Dallas or Houston (and I have been to all four and lived in two). But it’s one thing to have actual reasons not to like those places–like race relations in Durham or general economic decay in Cleveland–rather than an uninformed disregard for any non-coastal city.
I absolutely agree that we should learn from other places–including France–and from what they do better. But that means not dismissing the possibility–like Matt and a lot of other commenters did–of learning from Houston, too.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Fair enough.
January 31st, 2009 at 12:42 pm
bottomofthe9th: I agree with you but you are going to get nowhere with these types. It’s deliciously ironic that in the same post where Matt is complaining of Rep. Culberson’s provincialism that his toadies, from their wonderful urban delights like Washington DC, are bitching about ’shitholes’ like Dallas and Houston. I live in Dallas and it’s great. Not many other places I’d rather live. Dallas happened to have the highest net population growth in the country last year. Houston I think was #4. Overall Texas had 4 of the top 10 in absolute and percentage numbers. So, maybe other cities have something to learn from Dallas and Houston?
January 31st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
France isn’t hell, but it’s not without problems of its own. They have a serious funding problems for their entitlements, and it’s become politically impossible (given the strength of their unions) to cut those back. That’s why you see periodic general strikes (like what’s happening now) – that paralyze large parts of the country.
One problem with the left’s desire to replicate European social policy is the seeming lack of ability to see where that ends up when you go too far. Germany and France are good examples of “too far”. You end up with unsupportable spending that is politically impossible to cut.
January 31st, 2009 at 6:54 pm
“You end up with unsupportable spending that is politically impossible to cut.”
I think that can be said for just about any country. F-22 Raptor, B-1, ag subsidies. It’s interesting to see what programs become politically impossible to cut. In France and Germany it’s public health. In the US, it’s war machines.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:05 pm
james Robertson: One problem with the left’s desire to replicate European social policy is the seeming lack of ability to see where that ends up when you go too far. Germany and France are good examples of “too far”.
Once I talked with a cousin who lives in Sweden, and she mentioned her terrible government. You see, at that moment Sweden had a right-wing government cutting versus eligibilities and services, and she concluded “pretty soon it will be as awful as in Austria”. Being a clerical worker with a degree in Romance languages she was not an expert on comparative social policy, but her friend from highschool days lives in Austria, hence the ability to make a rather accurate comparison.
From another denizen of Sweden I heard Denmark described as an example of social Darwinism, at least, compared to Sweden.
Why am saying it? Because Sweden somehow defines gravity as defined by American thinking on social issues. The country should keel over, collapsed like late Soviet Union, from its excesses. Obviously, it is not a paradise (what country is). But it is a very good example that while “the size of the state” matters, what is more important is what and how the state is doing, and not how much. Swedes perhaps do to much (as the state), but they do it well.
By the way. this “paralyze large parts of the country” is over-dramatic. Yes, this is a stock phrase, so it is not incorrect, but it is important to remember that such a paralysis is very visible in TV news, but normally the inconvenience is moderate.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:05 pm
“Sure, the cutting edge stuff is done in the US, but for the 90% of the country that can’t afford it (or whose insurance won’t pay for it), what does it matter?”
This simply isn’t true. A close relative — a retired social worker — got cutting edge care (including a drug with a retail price of thousands of dollars per injection) at one of the top two cancer hospitals in the U.S. The combination of his Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance and Medicare covered almost 100% of his costs.
It’s also worth remembering that a lot of what is routine care now was, at one point, more expensive, cutting edge care. We have excellent health care in the U.S., which is why people from all of the world come to The Mayo Clinic, M.D. Anderson, Memorial Sloan Kettering, etc. Increasing the number of Americans with health insurance is a good idea, but there’s no reason to throw the baby out with the bath water.
January 31st, 2009 at 7:11 pm
“I think that can be said for just about any country. F-22 Raptor, B-1, ag subsidies. It’s interesting to see what programs become politically impossible to cut.”
From Wikipedia:
The original order of 750 F-22s was cut to 183. So much for it being politically impossible to make cuts to weapons programs.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:03 am
Sweden – like France, not hell, but also not the paradise the left seems to imagine…
February 1st, 2009 at 10:35 am
When I went to visit Texas lately for family funerals — the Houston and Dallas branches of our family, and Fort Worth, from which I was expecting better things — I was truly horrified at the endless strip malls and horrible highways, and the minuscule, banal, and inadequate city centers.
I admit the area around Rice is nice, Austin and the Hill Country are not bad, and the Riverwalk in San Antonio is an example of what could be.
Durham and Raleigh I lived in the area of for five years.
Cleveland I visited a few years ago, right after coming back from a trip to Germany, and residents told me that if I thought it was bad, I should visit Buffalo.
The reality is that we have BIG problems in the US, and people have become quite blind to them. I have to agree with James Howard Kunstler (and R. Crumb) on this.
When we saw it in Germany I thought Wim Wenders’s “Land of Plenty” was an exaggerated caricature — but visiting the heartland — maybe not. Our spectacular resources of natural beauty cannot really compensate for the slash and burn of sprawl and the ruins it creates.
The Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware was quite beautiful until about 10 years ago. I remember very well the little towns, some of which are still there: Centerville, for example. What has happened to much of it is a tragedy — especially Delaware. What is wrong with aspiring to something a little better?
February 1st, 2009 at 10:53 am
“Lack of ability to see where that ends up when you go too far” You might end up with a country that is only a “seeming paradise” (i.e., somewhat better) instead of a real paradise? Curious argument.
February 1st, 2009 at 12:29 pm
In France and Germany you have permanent, structural unemployment at much higher levels than in the US. You have a system where the young have a very, very difficult time landing a job, because the job protections have made industry loathe to hire anyone new – seeing as how it’s next to impossible to get rid of anyone.
Sweden has similar issues with underemployment being rewarded by large govt transfer payments. Since all three countries have falling populations, it’s a simple math problem: the current welfare system is not sustainable. It’s premised on a constantly growing pool of young labor to fund the transfer payments to the retirees. However, the drop in birth rates and the job protections have destroyed that supporting leg.
February 1st, 2009 at 1:55 pm
And the US doesn’t have a problem with unemployment/underemployment? Some people say that if US figures were compiled honestly its unemployment would be over 20 percent.
Unemployment and underemployment are huge problems all over the world. We are not exempted by sticking our heads in the sand, fudging the figures, and imprisoning huge numbers of our population.
Face it, it has become impossible to go on believing our own lying eyes and maintain the fiction that our “solution” — doing nothing — is more humane or effective than that of Europe’s moderately leftist social safety net (whatever its perils and potential drawbacks). And Europe, at least until recently, has been every bit as much of a consumer’s paradise as is the US, to boot, with shopping malls galore, even in East Germany.
February 1st, 2009 at 3:03 pm
In the US, it’s easier to hire people, because of the fact that it’s easier to lay them off. In industries where layoffs are harder, you tend to see stagnation. Basically, if you want dynamic industry, you want less constraints on hiring and firing. If you want to see a more static system – where those with jobs do fairly well, while younger people looking for work have trouble, then emulate Europe.
February 1st, 2009 at 3:31 pm
Um, dynamic industry? You must mean finance and real estate.
February 1st, 2009 at 4:17 pm
James Robertson, whose head must be exploding: European jobs don’t count because their industries are “static”.
“Dynamic”! — This reminds me of an old joke — “When other people do it it’s dirty, when we do it, it’s love!”
(Don’t forget, when these folks in lose their “non-dynamic” jobs they don’t also lose their healthcare.)
CIA unemployment stats:
USA: 4.7% (in 2007), 7.2% now
France: CIA 7.6% (in 2007), 7.5 % now (Eurostats)
Japan CIA 3.8% in 2007 now:
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