Are Europeans entitled to a better political class?
We blame our leaders for problems of our own making
We Europeans spend a lot of time complaining about the state in which we find our societies, and there is plenty to complain about. Unending mass immigration, the illusion of growth built on soaring debt, rising cost of living, the pervasive feeling that our leadership class are more concerned with fashionable internationalist causes than the wellbeing of their own citizens. People are understandably perplexed by behaviour that is obviously contrary to the national interest.
Yet, what if I were to tell you that there is another side to this. The unfortunate reality is that European civilisation has been at the top of the global food chain for so long that we have forgotten what got us there (no, it wasn’t exploitation). We no longer enjoy the (relatively) peaceful, high-trust societies that our grandparents, despite their relative lack of material wealth, were arguably better off for. Even so, we feel entitled to the comforts of a prosperous society that exists only at the surface level.
In this sense, we are the spoiled, third-generation nouveau riche of history. Long after our predecessors have created the conditions in which unparalleled prosperity was able to develop, we take it for granted and want our piece.
A Necessary Disclaimer
Let me clear something up, before I am accused of being a kind of Dickensian monster. We must have strong social safety net for those who are unable to work through no fault of their own. We should also provide support to those who are engaged in activities that are healthy for society, such as families. I am certainly no die-hard libertarian or anarcho-capitalist type. Such thinking is selfish, and idiotic.
There are other things which we ought to be entitled to. It is not unreasonable to expect equality before the law, decent working conditions, affordable healthcare, a cohesive community and so on. However, these things do not exist in a vacuum, waiting to be doled out.
A Contrast
I have had the privilege to live and work in a number of countries. This attitude is most prevalent in Europe, but expresses itself in other places. In continental Europe especially, people wish to work a limited number of hours for high pay in comfortable jobs where very little output is produced (all the better if is is for the state), yet expect unlimited state benefits in return. Rarely will it be acknowledged that your output needs to be at least equal in value to your entitlements.
This phenomenon is noticeably less pronounced in the United States, where hard work is still rewarded (US readers may beg to differ, but we can at least agree that it is expected). Europeans look at America and are shocked by the relatively few holidays and high number of hours worked. Yet, higher US productivity is not just due to working more - GDP per hour is higher, too.
The USA has plenty of problems with a culture of entitlement, but they are of a different nature and perhaps a topic for another time.
False Promises
It is this a toxic mix of entitlement and superiority which has enabled the growth of a leadership class that is able to promise everything while delivering nothing (often while enriching themselves). It is hardly radical to observe that such politicians are extremely likely to get elected.
The idea that we can ‘have it all’ is obviously absurd. Let’s take the example of immigration mentioned above. People are unhappy with the numbers and all of the negative externalities associated with mass immigration, yet it has generally been assumed that immigration increases the productive capacity of an economy in absolute terms (despite the story being much more complicated).
We want cheap labour to service us (but maintain our high wages), we want pension funds paid for a growing cohort of retirees (by a declining native population). This has to be paid for somehow, and our betters have decided that immigration is the way to do it. Whether or not this is actually necessary, it is the operating assumption of those in charge.
Similar stories can be told for socialised healthcare (the most high-quality, for everyone, at any time), work-life balance and more. We are angry when politicians fail to live up to their inflated promises in great part because we demand so little of ourselves.
Hard Questions for Hard Times
If you are a subscriber to the Hard Times Create Strong Men (etc.) theory of history, I have good news for you: the Good Times are long over and the Weak Men are losing their grip on power. Yet, despite this, we are still buying into the idea that we can have it all, at no cost to ourselves.
There will be some tough decisions to be made in the coming years if we are to dig ourselves out of the hole created by decades of complacency. The longer it takes to recognise this, the harder things will be.
“The wise man does at once what the fool does finally”
Niccolo Machiavelli