In the classic "Foreigners Around The World", PJ O'Rourke wrote of the English that "their shabby, antiquated, and bankrupt little back alley of a country slowly winds down like the ill-crafted clockwork playthings of which their undersized children are so fond". This winding down continues, as Britain's entire economy is sinking in the world rankings, getting passed by the likes of China and Italy and set to fall behind Canada and India by 2015... yup, that would place it behind at least three of its former colonies.

As we point and laugh at these losers, we should also look for someone to blame. I blame Britain's rulers, not for being evil or incompetent or corrupt, but for being nice and making their subjects' lives less troublesome. To quote from a speech Charles Murray made earlier this year:

Almost anything that government does in social policy can be characterized as taking some of the trouble out of things. Sometimes, taking the trouble out of things is a good idea. Having an effective police force takes some of the trouble out of walking home safely at night, and I'm glad it does.

The problem is this: Every time the government takes some of the trouble out of performing the functions of family, community, vocation, and faith, it also strips those institutions of some of their vitality--it drains some of the life from them. . .

A man who is holding down a menial job and thereby supporting a wife and children is doing something authentically important with his life. He should take deep satisfaction from that, and be praised by his community for doing so. Think of all the phrases we used to have for it: "He is a man who pulls his own weight." "He's a good provider." If that same man lives under a system that says that the children of the woman he sleeps with will be taken care of whether or not he contributes, then that status goes away. I am not describing some theoretical outcome. I am describing American neighborhoods where, once, working at a menial job to provide for his family made a man proud and gave him status in his community, and where now it doesn't. I could give a half dozen other examples. Taking the trouble out of the stuff of life strips people--already has stripped people--of major ways in which human beings look back on their lives and say, "I made a difference."

Read the whole thing - it's a good summary of Murray's central ideas. And then shed a tiny little tear for our co-blogger Alfred...