European entitlements do less to improve lives than to crowd out private options.
After 250 years, the United States remains a nation unlike any other — particularly when it comes to the role of government. Whereas Europeans turn first to the state to assure their welfare, Americans expect the government to step in only when they cannot provide for themselves.
This approach deserves some credit for America’s superior economic performance. But it has also proven to be more effective at aiding those in need.
Americans’ everyday political fights obscure an underlying ideological consensus. In his 2012 State of the Union address, Barack Obama told Congress: “I’m a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: that government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more.”
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Chris Pope is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here. This piece is adapted from Pope's forthcoming book, The American Way of Welfare: Providing For Those Who Can’t Provide For Themselves.
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