Demagogue

A semi-wonky-but-useful point/counterpoint about Social Security, via Atrios, between liberal economist-blogger Max Sawicky and conservative economist-blogger Arnold Kling. There's almost none of the ad hominem, invective-filled nonsense that passes for debate these days--where's Dan Ackroyd when you need him--and I recommend the exchange for those who want to follow the topic at a higher level than Bill O'Reilly, or even Jim Lehrer, will allow.

There's lots of talk about deficits, growth projections, demographics, labor market economics, and so on, in the middle of which there's a sudden focus on the European lifestyle (as if there were just one--note to American bloggers: there's a bunch of countries over here). Kling sez:

As you point out, Europeans have higher tax rates and less market employment. However, don't think of the reduced market labor as meaning that Europeans sit around and enjoy life more. Today, for example, in my home we are having new kitchen cabinets installed by a contractor. In Europe, people would be more likely to do such work themselves, because the taxes on economic activity are high. Actual leisure time, of the sort where you sit around and eat bonbons, isn't necessarily higher over there than over here.

Our house here in the Netherlands has been crawling with carpenters, electricians, plumbers, plasterers, and who knows how many other tradesmen for the past three months and will be for a couple of months more, all under the watchful eye of a contractor. None of them seem to be deterred by taxes--which really aren't that high--nor are we tempted to do it ourselves to save on taxes. And, as it happens, this week they've been installing (guess what?) kitchen cabinets.

Doesn't prove anything, but I was amused.

P.S. As for leisure time, they're going to install a new bathroom while we're away at a Club Med in Morocco for a week in February, one month after returning from a two-and-a-half-week Christmas vacation. I tell my Dutch friends that standard vacation time in U.S. companies is two weeks, and the big law firms give you only four, and they think I must be joking. A colleague is heading out for five months' (paid) maternity leave, and my Dutch teacher yesterday said she thought the period must be shorter than that in the U.S. When I explained that the FMLA, passed after years of controversy only a decade ago, guarantees the right to two weeks' unpaid leave, she looked as if she thought we were committing a crime against humanity. All of which is not to say that the Dutch way is the best way, or that we should emulate their taxation and social policies, but don't kid yourselves: life here is much more leisurely.