Characteristically brilliant, libertarian Charles Murray urges America's elites to eschew "European syndrome" and to once again fall in love with American exceptionalism.

He is optimistic that this will happen thanks to advancements in scientific understanding of what makes human beings tick and watching what happens to Europe (disintegrating communities, hedonism, low birth rates, unsustainable welfare benefits, etc.) in the coming decades.

Money Q:

Drive through rural Sweden, as I did a few years ago. In every town was a beautiful Lutheran church, freshly painted, on meticulously tended grounds, all subsidized by the Swedish government. And the churches are empty. Including on Sundays. Scandinavia and Western Europe pride themselves on their “child-friendly” policies, providing generous child allowances, free day-care centers, and long maternity leaves. Those same countries have fertility rates far below replacement and plunging marriage rates. Those same countries are ones in which jobs are most carefully protected by government regulation and mandated benefits are most lavish. And they, with only a few exceptions, are countries where work is most often seen as a necessary evil, least often seen as a vocation, and where the proportions of people who say they love their jobs are the lowest.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: I just discovered that Opinionjournal.com printed the same quote I chose from Murray's lecture in it's Notable & Quotable. A rather startling coincidence given the length of the lecture and all the good stuff in it to highlight. Nevertheless it is coincidence. Or an example of great minds thinking alike? OK, a coincidence.