The Financial Times reports on a poll showing that Europeans generally want more government intervention and have little desire for an “American-style” capitalist system. At the same time, the Europeans have little faith that they can compete in the modern economy. It is unclear, though, whether they understand that their support for bigger government is a reason why Europe has trouble competing with the rest of the world:

Europeans have little faith that their continent can compete economically with fast-growing Asian countries – but are even more convinced that it should not become more like the US. …multinational corporations are seen by Europeans as more powerful than governments, while those polled generally believed that regulations protecting workers’ rights should be strengthened rather than relaxed. …When asked whether Europe’s economy should be more like that of the US, the results were clear-cut. Those saying it should not, included 78 per cent of Germans, 73 per cent of the French, 58 per cent of the Spanish. In both Italy and the UK, 46 per cent opposed the US model. …Asked if a free-market, capitalist economy was the best system, Spanish and German respondents agreed overall, but the French and Italians did not. The British were less clear, although there was more support than opposition for a “capitalist” system.

The unintentionally amusing (or sad) part of the story is that America does not have an “American-style” capitalist system. The difference between the United States and Europe is that America has a medium-size welfare state while most European nations have large-size welfare states. The difference is not trivial, which is why America is more prosperous, but Europeans have a very distorted view of the United States thanks to ideologically biased information sources such as Michael Moore and CNN International.

* Cato Institute , 24.09.2007