It's not the end of the world as we know it

Here's another great column, which I think addresses a lot of the idiocy you hear in the world today.

It's "the end of American capitalism," claimed a headline in the Washington Post. "Free market economics is falling into disrepute south of the border," wrote Lawrence Martin in the Globe and Mail.

With respect, what we are actually witnessing is the crushing stupidity of the stereotypes and labels we use when discussing grand-scale economics.

Imagine a country that has the second-highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. Its agricultural sector is heavily subsidized by the state. And one of its biggest industries -- with 600,000 full-time employees and another 850,000 part-timers -- is owned and operated by the government.

This country is the United States -- the laissez-faire, devil-take-the-hindmost, money-worshipping United States. (That government-owned industry? The military.)

Now imagine a country that ranks third (out of 134) on the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Index. One reason for that ranking is the world-leading ease with which employers in this country can hire and fire workers. This country also boasts world-class private corporations, one of the highest employment rates in the developed world, and corporate tax rates far lower than those of the United States.

This country is Denmark -- tax-crazed, welfare-loving, nanny-state Denmark.

This goes a long way to addressing the simple minded attitudes you hear all over the place. Sarah Palin not withstanding, the United States is not as different from the rest of the world as everyone would like to believe — not least interns at the institutions of the European Union.