Oh_my_god (or: goddesses and gods, above and below, named and unnamed, real and imaginary), someone in the US has seen the light.
An earnest columnist has written an article for a US newspaper in which he actually makes a _F_A_I_R_ report concerning the choices of our European welfare states, instead of simply belittling them with a dismissive wave of the hand. And not just anyone, Paul Krugman, who happens to be an acknowledged economist and who writes a regular op/ed column in the New York Times.
In this article (read it here ), Paul Krugman actually uses intellectual honesty in explaining the differences between US and European systems, and in explaining that differences result from different choices for one's life on both sides of the Atlantic.
More than that, Paul Krugman also explains that choices are simply what they are: choices, and that one isn't above the other. One isn't "the one and only choice" and the other "stupidity". The US citizens choose some things above others, the European citizens choose other things above others. We have different priorities. It's our problem, our right, and nobody can scorn the other because of those sets of priorities. Hence the conclusion that there may be more than one way to lead one's life, more than one view on work, work conditions, health care systems, and, lo!, it follows that more than one kind society is possible. Almighty ultra-liberalism isn't the One Truth its supporters boast it is.
I am amazed.
So, Mr. Krugman, all my thanks and gratitude for your honesty and your courage in publishing such a column.
Maybe there's a chance for us, after all...
