The American Consumer, The Great Bolsterer

I have been pondering two questions for the past few days.

1. How much has the American consumer subsidized the European decades long experiment with socialism?

2. If our system continues the lurch leftward what will then be the effect on all the countries we have, in effect, been propping up?

I was thinking about Norway and how the socialists in that country have been successful using the countries vast oil wealth to, essentially, buy off the population. Which then led me to the conclusion that it is because, in great part, of American consumption and innovation that the oil has the value that it does. They can balk and turn their noses at us, but we have been the enablers of socialism on much of the European continent.

Another way we have done this is by providing Europe with protection and our military might. This saved them countless billions over the decades, billions which have allowed the welfare state mentality to flourish and take hold in the psyche of the people. Although Europe was and continues to be heavily influenced by Marxist intellectual thought, perhaps allowing them to feel the pain of such a system would have allowed ideals more closely aligned with ours to gain a foothold in the collective mind of the people. While we were fly swatting leftist regimes around the globe, we allowed Europe to become what it is today. Like a child playing parent to an over-indulgent and dysfunctional parent, we were the enablers.

Healthcare is another sector that we have continued to let feed off the trough. 70% of pharmaceutical research funding comes from the United States. Both US and European drug companies sell their products for a premium in the US. European countries with socialized medicine sell these same medicines at or just above cost. In other words, the American free-market consumer subsidizes the European socialist counterparts in the prices paid for needed medicines. Then we allow Europeans and like- minded left leaning Americans to question how a first world country could not have socialized medicine.

Instantly, we can see in this example what will happen if we continue in the direction we are headed. If the Obama administration is successful in nationalizing the American healthcare system one of two things will happen, either the funding for research will dry up or the costs for drugs in Europe and Canada will increase. Those are the laws of the market.

The United States consumer and standard of living has been propping up the European (and Canadian) love affair with socialism for at least the last half-century — in all sorts of ways.The European elite leadership may be, at least, somewhat aware of this and, on some level, they must know if they kill the golden goose Europeans will start to look inward rather than to the United States for their ills. Additionally, I believe it may be a part of why we are seeing quite a bit of defiance toward the Obama administration coming from the European continent.

However, the average European citizen would never believe this. They buy the Marxist opiate hook, line and sinker. I interact with them in cyber-space regularly. They really believe the state “gives” you everything you need—your health, your childcare, takes care of old age, removes the responsibility of adulthood. It may be well past time the Europeans were taught a valuable lesson--no socialist society has ever succeeded without subsidy from somewhere else, namely the much sneered and jeered American consumer.