Marry The State, Why Don't You

If I'm reading this correctly, Americans need to fight for things like national healthcare and expanded entitlements to make men more amenable to settling down, and by extension ease the search for true love for women.

Apparently, European men have it all over American men when it comes to commitment because they're relieved of the pressure to be a provider. In enlightened Europe, the state takes care of you, so the argument goes, so the man can use time he'd normally be working to improve himself, or something.

As proof, the author cites the experiences and viewpoints of herself and her best friend, who are Canadian and French, respectively. Well, with a sample size like that, I guess it's settled.

The calculus of long-term committment is just different when your country guarantees the basic necessities of an advanced civilization. When your government provides you, as they do in Canada and in Europe, with health care that is unlinked to a job or "productivity," subsidized prescription drugs, child care, free education through graduate school, and, finally, old-age pensions with visiting nurses if you need them to retain your health and a modicum of dignity.

Calculus is a difficult subject that when mastered yields great things. When the state is your mommy, you don't bother to learn calculus. You sit around on your butt, producing nothing. The only thing that really gets you up and active is when your mommy tells you that tax receipts are down and benefits will have to be cut. Then it's protest time. Then you wish you'd studied calculus.