Questioning free trade, Part Two

Okay, so this is actually part 1.B of this thread, because Tourpro wrote in with a good counter-argument.

"I'm having a hard time making a comparison with France," he wrote. "For one, I can't think of any significant contribution their system has made to the world in a long time. Not one single Made in France product jumps out at me."

The question neatly sums up the conservative argument that the European model of capitalism is a bust, one that results in creative malaise, heavy-handed government, and high unemployment.

But the facts simply don't bear out this claim. The reality is that we use French products all the time.

European governments propped up Airbus (based in Tououse, France) with subsidies for years. Now the company outsells Boeing and has a 54% market share world-wide.

The allergy drug Allegra is a French product, as are BF Goodrich and Michelin tires, BIC razors, pens and lighters, Car & Driver Magazine (yup, French-owned), Culligan Water, and Dannon yogurt.

Many of the television programs and movies we watch are owned or produced by Vivendi Universal Entertainment, HQ'd in France.

Women's Day magazine - French-owned. Dozens of the name-brand beverages in your grocery or liquor store? Owned by Pernod.

I could go on and on.

Proportional to their populations, European countries are just as good at the capitalism game as we Americans -- maybe better.

It's true that Americans are more productive than Europeans, because more of us work (far more American women work full-time) and we work far longer hours with fewer vacations.

And while Europeans have higher unemployment, Americans hold far more dead-end, "working poor" positions. So that's a wash.

"When we adjust for both these factors and look at GDP in 2005 per person per hour worked," writes economist George Irvin, "there is virtually no difference between Germany, France and the US."

Indeed, many of the products and services that we use unblinkingly come from countries that incorporate far more planning into their economies.

Venezuela's state-owned Citgo has shops on street corners across the North Country.
Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson are major players in US telecom.

"French-owned Sodexho U.S.A. is the largest food service company in the United States," observes the Council on Foreign Relations, "and even serves meals on Marine Corps bases."

So while America may make different choices about how we run our economy, one fact is undeniable.

The choices these other countries have made about protecting home industries and regulating trade simply haven't caused the malaise that conservative economists predicted.

Coming tomorrow, Questioning Free Trade Part 3.