Does David Brooks know *anything* about Europe?

Another day, another display of epic cluelessness by the Serious Mr. David Brooks - this time when he takes on the American welfare system.  His latest article in the NY Times contains some classic Serious-isms.  Take this bon-mot for instance

But many Republicans have now come to the conclusion that the welfare-state model is in its death throes... the first phase of that collapse [of the welfare state] is playing out right now in Greece, Spain and Italy.

Really dude?  Really?
Does he actually know anything about Europe, other than a reflexive "Europe sucks! U.S.A! U.S.A!" response?  If he'd bothered to use The Googles, he'd find that in Europe, countries spending more on welfare than Greece, Spain and Italy include (get this!) Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands!  In fact, Spain is actually waaaaay down on the list, with basically most of the rest of the European countries ahead of it!  I mean, Germany! Switzzerland! The Netherlands! These are all countries that are, supposedly, models of fiscal rectitude even for him, that have done remarkably well through the recent crisis years, pretty much negating his thesis. "Death throes of the welfare state" my ass...

But, I digress, he then proceeds to "show" that the welfare state is responsible for the crappy U.S. Economy, pointing out that as the welfare state grew

In the decades after World War II, the U.S. economy grew by well over 3 percent a year, on average. But, since then, it has failed to keep pace with changing realities.   The average growth was a paltry 1.7 percent annually between 2000 and 2009. It averaged 0.6 percent growth between 2009 and 2011. Wages have failed to keep up with productivity.

Hmmm.  Interesting time frame there, no?  Carefully jamming in the financial crisis (2007-2009) into the the numbers to show that growth in the 00's sucked?  If you ask me, I'd kinda point out that the main reason for the financial crisis, and the anemic growth after that, was a ridiculously screwed up financial system focused more on casino operations and rent-seeking than actually providing liquidity to the economy, and that was caused more by Greenspan being a AynRandian doofus than anything else. But thats just me...

And then comes the piece de resistance, with the following

Money that could go to schools and innovation must now go to pensions and health care. This model, which once offered insurance from the disasters inherent in capitalism, has now become a giant machine for redistributing money from the future to the elderly.

Seriously dude, lets back up a bit and look at Europe.  Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Switzerland "despite" having larger welfare states than Greece, Spain, and Italy, have better health-care than the U.S., which costs about half as much!  If we could magically have their health-care system, we're actually be rocking out with monster budget surpluses right now!

The bottom line here, oh Serious Mr. David Brooks - correlation does not imply causation, you don't know the first thing about what you are talking about, and you basically need to STFU