To explain, we recommend two superb pieces of journalism on politics and economics, excellent weekend reads for those who read on weekends.
The first is Mark Steyn's recent address at Hillsdale College, recently published in abridged form by Hillsdale's Imprimis publication. With the sly title, "Is Canada's Economy a Model for the US?" Stein with signature wit manages to point out everything that is right about the American way and everything that is wrong with the Nanny State of the North. We offer a couple of quotations in hope of inducing gentle readers to read in full:
I was a bit stunned to be asked to speak on the Canadian economy. “What happened?” I wondered. “Did the guy who was going to talk about the Belgian economy cancel?” It is a Saturday night, and the Oak Ridge Boys are playing the Hillsdale County Fair. Being from Canada myself, I am, as the President likes to say, one of those immigrants doing the jobs Americans won’t do. And if giving a talk on the Canadian economy on a Saturday night when the Oak Ridge Boys are in town isn’t one of the jobs Americans won’t do, I don’t know what is. . . .
The third difference [between Canada and the US] is that Canada’s economy is more subsidized. Almost every activity amounts to taking government money in some form or other. I was at the Summit of the Americas held in Canada in the summer of 2001, with President Bush and the presidents and prime ministers from Latin America and the Caribbean. And, naturally, it attracted the usual anti-globalization anarchists who wandered through town lobbing bricks at any McDonald’s or Nike outlet that hadn’t taken the precaution of boarding up its windows. At one point I was standing inside the perimeter fence sniffing tear gas and enjoying the mob chanting against the government from the other side of the wire, when a riot cop suddenly grabbed me and yanked me backwards, and a nanosecond later a chunk of concrete landed precisely where I had been standing. I bleated the usual “Oh my God, I could have been killed” for a few minutes and then I went to have a café au lait. And while reading the paper over my coffee, I learned that not only had Canadian colleges given their students time off to come to the Summit to riot, but that the Canadian government had given them $300,000 to pay for their travel and expenses. It was a government-funded anti-government riot! At that point I started bleating “Oh my God, I could have been killed at taxpayer expense.” Say what you like about the American trust-fund babies who had swarmed in to demonstrate from Boston and New York, but at least they were there on their own dime. Canada will and does subsidize anything.
The second is an article dated 24 January 2008 in the Economist, generally regarded as the globe's premier news magazine and decidedly committed to the middle of the road on all matters. Would it make folks feel better about things to know that at present the world's poor are getting un-poor at a rate far, far faster than any previous point in history? It certainly warms our SWNIDish heart on an otherwise cold morning.
For those who complain that global capitalism and technology don't solve all problems, we offer a loud "Amen!" Our conviction that human nature is fallen suggest that nothing short of conversion genuinely alters the human condition at its core. But the concern for others dictated by the gospel that converts us also dictates that we seek what is best for the many out of what is possible for the fallen. That best remains relatively free markets and free trade, which harness human creativity and local advantages for the benefit of others despite and even through human selfish interests.
Our neighbors to the north provide a contrast on the negative while the planet as a whole provides an example on the positive.
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