As health care reform nears the finish line, there is much wailing and rending of garments among conservatives. And I’m not just talking about the tea partiers. Even calmer conservatives have been issuing dire warnings that Obamacare will turn America into a European-style social democracy. And everyone knows that Europe has lost all its economic dynamism.

Strange to say, however, what everyone knows isn’t true. Europe has its economic troubles; who doesn’t? But the story you hear all the time  of a stagnant economy in which high taxes and generous social benefits have undermined incentives, stalling growth and innovation  bears little resemblance to the surprisingly positive facts. The real lesson from Europe is actually the opposite of what conservatives claim: Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works.

Actually, Europe’s economic success should be obvious even without statistics. For those Americans who have visited Paris: did it look poor and backward? What about Frankfurt or London? You should always bear in mind that when the question is which to believe  official economic statistics or your own lying eyes  the eyes have it.

In any case, the statistics confirm what the eyes see.

It’s true that the U.S. economy has grown faster than that of Europe for the past generation. Since 1980  when our politics took a sharp turn to the right, while Europe’s didn’t  America’s real G.D.P. has grown, on average, 3 percent per year. Meanwhile, the E.U. 15  the bloc of 15 countries that were members of the European Union before it was enlarged to include a number of former Communist nations  has grown only 2.2 percent a year. America rules!