A NEW GUY, AND GREAT - AT 11:24 A.M. ET:  The Atlanta Journal-Constitution isn't known as a great den of conservatives.  But they've had conservative representation on their op-ed page.  Today a new writer makes his debut - Kyle Wingfield, previously of the Wall Street Journal's European edition.  It's a great beginning, as he informs readers of some of the realities of Europe.  Sadly, this probably won't be read where it's needed most - in the smug precincts of the northeast, where European is always "better and finer."  But we can read it:

Europeans have smaller cars, but also fewer cars. They may have “free” health care, but even middle-class families often pay more than 50 percent of their incomes in taxes. Their markets may not be caricatured as Wild West capitalism the way ours are, but to be a consumer in Europe is to know what the word “rip-off” means — in pricing, in choice, in service.

There is no such thing as the “European social model” because every nation is different. What they all have in common, though, is that they have spent the last decade or longer trying to move away from the very kind of system we Americans may be on the verge of adopting.

They are doing so because it’s simply unsustainable. Margaret Thatcher’s dictum still holds true: “The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Ah, so true.

I won't pretend that America’s way is never messy. The private sector made real mistakes that helped cause the current financial crisis. But bankers could not have created so much havoc on their own. At every step, government amplified the private sector’s errors with its own policy failures — that goes for the Bush and Clinton administrations alike. (And, it seems, the nascent Obama one.)

To say that more government is the answer is to ignore government’s mistakes, in our recent past as well as in all state-heavy systems. Like Europe’s.

I won’t dwell on my European experience, even if it shapes my thinking. But know this: When I first moved to Belgium, I felt I was stepping back in time a few years. I shudder to think that I was actually looking at America’s future.

COMMENT:  We'll be following Mr. Wingfield's writing.  If the above is an example, we're in for some enlightenment.

May 3, 2009