An interesting new Harris/Financial Times poll shows not only a worldwide swing towards some fairly populist ideas, but the enduringly different attitudes of America as compared to the rest of the world. First, that old standby: Mobility.
It's interesting, first, that a majority of Americans answer "no" to that question. But look how low France, Italy, and Spain are. It's really not hard to understand why our welfare states are so sharply variant. If you don't believe that lady luck and the magic of the market render achievement a variable dependent on virtue, you're probably a bit more likely to greenlight spending that evens the playing field.
The second difference, though, is that Europeans simply are far more willing to let government muck about in the economy than are Americans:
The US barely ticks 30% on this one, while our generally stalwart allies in the UK are nearing 60%. And it's true! I mean, as others have noted, I'm "a man with an apparent soft spot for command-and-control economics," but even I don't think this is a good idea. I'm much more comfortable taxing salaries than regulating them...
