A Useless Comparison

Kevin Williamson writes here about a response to one of his pieces about communism vs. socialism.

M.S.'s response irks me: "I have lived or spent time in several of the northern European social-democratic countries that are often described by American conservatives as “socialist”, and I don’t remember seeing anything like this going on. Let’s see, the Netherlands, Denmark, France . . . nope, don’t remember seeing The Man coming to anyone’s house with a gun to tell them to go serve the community."

Don't forget the effects of scale. The Netherlands, Denmark and France are all small countries, relative to the America, which arguably make them easier countries to implement "socialist" type entitlement programs. For instance, it's easier for the Dutch to align their costs (i.e. taxes) with their benefits (cheap health care) because their capitol isn't 3,000 miles away and the government is more visible, and therefore accountable, to the people.