The Crisis of the EU: Is America Headed There Too?

We believe that America was founded by the intention of God so that we might have a place to worship Him in spirit and truth, and that we might be a light to the world that freedom is found in the purpose of God.  We are to be a light to the rest of the world as Israel was intended to be when God founded it by promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, etc.  Darkness (evil) wants nothing to do with light and will do anything it can to move America away from her intended purpose.  For all her faults and sins, God still wants to bless us.  We must stand up against evil, against all forces which would deter America from being in the center of God's will.  Hillsdale College has taken this stand and Václav Klaus of the Czech Republic warns us concerning the direction we are taking.
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On Václav Klaus
Larry P. Arnn
President, Hillsdale CollegeVáclav Klaus is the president of the Czech Republic, and has served twice as its prime minister. He was born in Prague in 1941, and holds his doctorate in economics from the University of Economics in Prague, where he still teaches. He also studied in Italy in 1966 and in the United States in 1969.

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July/August 2011
Václav Klaus
President,
Czech Republic

"In Europe, we have witnessed a gradual shift away from liberalizing and removing barriers and towards a massive introduction of regulation from above, an ever-expanding welfare system, new and more sophisticated forms of protectionism, and continuously growing legal and regulatory burdens on business. All of these weaken and restrain freedom, democracy and democratic accountability, not to mention economic efficiency, entrepreneurship and competitiveness.

"Europeans today prefer leisure to performance, security to risk-taking, paternalism to free markets, collectivism and group entitlements to individualism. They have always been more risk-averse than Americans, but the difference continues to grow. Economic freedom has a very low priority here. It seems that Europeans are not interested in capitalism and free markets and do not understand that their current behavior undermines the very institutions that made their past success possible. They are eager to defend their non-economic freedoms—the easiness, looseness, laxity and permissiveness of modern or post-modern European society—but when it comes to their economic freedoms, they are quite indifferent.

"The critical situation in Europe today is visible to everybody. It is not possible to hide it. I had believed that this spectacle would be a help to the cause of political and economic freedom in Europe, but this is not proving to be the case. Of course, with the way your American government has been going, you might be able to catch up with us—in terms of our problems—very soon. But you are not as far along yet. So maybe seeing Europe’s crisis today will at least help you in America turn back toward freedom."

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For the whole Imprimis article click on the following link:
http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis.asp