From Chinese Press

Is US heading for a Euro-style economy?

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-29 14:21

Is the United States inching toward a European-style economy?

Arthur C. Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, believes so, although others disagree.

He argues in a new book that the United States is moving toward an economy and culture that redistributes wealth - similar to the European model - and away from the free market system that he said has been the historical foundation of the United States.

In "The Battle, How the Fight between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America's Future," Brooks argues that Americans face a cultural choice.

"Whether or not we want to embrace the culture of free enterprise as envisioned by our founders, or do we want to choose the culture of European-style social democracy as so many of our friends in Europe have chosen," he said in a recent speech at the US Chamber of Commerce.

Many Americans have already rejected the idea of a United States that looks more like Europe, he said. In spite of a growing federal government, a majority of Americans favor a free market system, in spite of occasional ups and downs, he said.

A Pew Research Report conducted last year found that nearly 70 percent of Americans said the free enterprise system is best, in spite of economic peaks and valleys, he noted. A Gallup poll in January found that 86 percent of Americans expressed a positive impression of the free enterprise system.

Despite those figures, it is that 30 percent of the population that has driven public policy - many of them wealthier or better educated than the other 70 percent - in what Brooks billed a "70- 30 nation."

Indeed, the previous administration saw 55,000 spending earmarks without a presidential veto, he noted.

And over the past year, the federal government has expanded by nearly 100,000 jobs. Government positions paying more than 150,000 dollars per year have risen more than 100 percent, he said.