Some say that Obama has the US on the road to European-style socialism. I think we are already there. Federal government employees now make twice as much as private employees, and entrepreneurship is discouraged by government policy and regulations. This makes it more attractive for people to seeks public rather than private employment. As in Europe, public employment is a sinecure rather than a job. The result is that structural unemployment becomes a problem, with double digit unemployment becoming the norm. The Democrats have worked for years to convert the nation from a republic into a democracy. Democracies have historical failed after the majority of people realized that they could vote themselves money from the treasury. As Hayek pointed out, once that happens the nation is well on the road to serfdom. Here is an article by John Stossel discussing this:

"Government is taking us a long way down the Road to Serfdom. That doesn't just mean that more of us must work for the government. It means that we are changing from independent, self-responsible people into a submissive flock. The welfare state kills the creative spirit. F.A. Hayek, an Austrian economist living in Britain, wrote 'The Road to Serfdom' in 1944 as a warning that central economic planning would extinguish freedom. ... Hayek meant that governments can't plan economies without planning people's lives. After all, an economy is just individuals engaging in exchanges. The scientific-sounding language of President Obama's economic planning hides the fact that people must shelve their own plans in favor of government's single plan. At the beginning of 'The Road to Serfdom,' Hayek acknowledges that mere material wealth is not all that's at stake when the government controls our lives: 'The most important change ... is a psychological change, an alteration in the character of the people.' This shouldn't be controversial. If government relieves us of the responsibility of living by bailing us out, character will atrophy. The welfare state, however good its intentions of creating material equality, can't help but make us dependent. That changes the psychology of society. According to the Tax Foundation, 60 percent of the population now gets more in government benefits than it pays in taxes. What does it say about a society in which more than half the people live at the expense of the rest?" --columnist John Stossel