European austerity shows it's not a model for U.S. recovery - by Adriana Huffington

There are lots of deficits in the United States right now, but one thing that's not in short supply is anti-European sentiment. This is especially true among those vying to run against President Obama. Criticizing the president, Mitt Romney said: "He wants us to turn into a European-style welfare state." Rick Santorum claimed Obama is "trying to impose some sort of European socialism on the United States."

Of course, this sort of oversimplifying bluster is about as helpful as viewing politics through the outmoded prism of left vs. right.

Indeed, last month, The New York Times detailed five recent studies that have shown the decline in economic mobility in the United States, which now lags most European countries. "It's becoming conventional wisdom that the U.S. does not have as much mobility as most other advanced countries," said Brookings Institution economist Isabel Sawhill. "I don't think you'll find too many people who will argue with that." Indeed, the same Rick Santorum who fears the clutches of European socialism has acknowledged that in Europe, movement "up into the middle income is actually greater . . . than it is in America."

Yet Europe is in crisis - a crisis driven by the current mania for austerity. And this crisis has at least as much to do with revenue as it does with spending. On both sides of the Atlantic, the proof that you can't cut your way to prosperity is becoming more and more obvious.

Austerity fever is behind much of what is ailing Europe. But my native country is learning the hard way that you cannot cut your way to growth. And the danger of civil unrest in Greece, which I saw when I visited this summer, is a major factor that more and more leaders are taking into account when making decisions. The austerity-mad policies have not only led to negative growth, they've led to a feeling that's less quantifiable but more likely to grab the attention of politicians jockeying for votes: people feeling there is no hope for the future.

Austerity-mad Britain, as Paul Krugman points out, is now trudging through a slump that is longer and deeper than the one it experienced in the 1930s. And last month, Standard & Poor's downgraded France's AAA credit rating. According to Reuters, "Bickering and escapism are the order of the day, and France is on track to waste what could have been a good ratings crisis."

If Europe is going to get out of this mess, there are two essential ingredients it will need: empathy that nurtures a strong civil society, and innovation nurtured by an entrepreneurial spirit. Producing a political system that rewards these essential traits, instead of being at the mercy of lobbyists and big money donors, will require speaking up, taking to social networks, and even taking to the streets.

The Italian journalist Luigi Barzini wrote that America "is alarmingly optimistic, compassionate, incredibly generous. . . . It was a spiritual wind that drove Americans ahead from the beginning." In Europe and in America, we are in dire need of another good strong gust of that wind, and the optimism, innovation, and creativity that come with it.

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