America: Home of the Hypocrites

Anne Applebaum says Americans demand big government. She has a point. A majority of Americans aren't ready to give up the goodies that the government provides them. But what she's really pointing out is that people are hypocrites. They say they're for limited government but they want what so-called big government provides them, healthcare, retirement money, and other forms of government guaranteed security.

Look around the world, and we don't look as exceptional as we think. Chileans are willing to save for their own retirement. Most Europeans are reconciled to the idea that not everybody, at any age and in any condition, is entitled to the most expensive medical technology. A secretary of state or defense traveling with dozens of cars and armed security guards would seem absurd in many countries, as would the notion that the government provides a tax break if you buy a house or that schools should close if there is ice on the roads. Yet we not only demand ludicrous levels of personal and political safety, we also rant and rave against the vast bureaucracies we have created -- democratically, constitutionally, openly -- to deliver it.

It's a fair cop.