French beret? No, I was thinking something a little more Italian.
Posted on 07/03/2010 5:52:44 AM PDT by Libloather
Europhobes know not what they fear
Robyn Blumner
Tribune Media
Friday, 02 July 2010 08:22
President Barack Obama has been maligned as a European socialist so often by his Tea Party critics that one would think he put French-style cafe tables on the White House lawn and took to wearing a beret.
Obama’s mildly progressive agenda isn’t close to that of a European social democracy. But one has to wonder whether all the people who so reflexively oppose European-style socialism have any idea what it is and how their lives would be different if they lived in a place that has it.
Americans see comparisons all the time in the media. Lists are almost a mania: top 10 safest car models, best places to retire, most streak-free self-tanners – you get the idea. But rarely is there an honest assessment of something really consequential: comparing our lives to those of average people in a European social democracy such as Germany, Denmark or France.
Which system gives people who are not in the top 1 percent of wealth a fairer deal? Which provides average folks better opportunities to make a living wage, achieve a comfortable work-life balance, have income mobility and enjoy a secure retirement? Where is there less stress in day-to-day life?
“Were You Born On The Wrong Continent?” – a new book (available in stores next month) by Chicago labor lawyer Thomas Geoghegan – makes those comparisons, and they are truly eye-opening.
Geoghegan focuses much of the book on Germany, a country that explodes the myth that European socialism invariably leads to anemic economies and high unemployment.
Since 2003, Germany and its 82 million people have either beaten China in export sales or about tied China for first place. Germany is arguably the world’s leading industrial power, even as its workers enjoy high wages, six-week vacations and other benefits that an American worker only dreams about.
Why is it that Germany’s industrial base hasn’t moved overseas to find the most exploitable labor sources, as has happened in the United States? Geoghegan’s book pulls back a curtain. We starkly see what happens when workers are given a modicum of power over their working lives compared with when they are not. Americans worry and struggle, battered by globalization and yawning income disparity, while Europeans enjoy their security and time. Tea baggers should be so lucky.
You can respond to Robyn’s column at blumner@sptimes.com.
Not by me. I like Kenyan Bolshevik. And Robyn needs to get a real job which isn't concerned about how to spend everyone else's money.
[Obama’s mildly progressive agenda isn’t close to that of a European social democracy.]
They just lie like a rug. Given his druthers, eveeryone knows Obama would turn America into a communist state. And what exactly is the difference between Obama’s worldview and European socialism? There’s not a hair’s difference.
Is that like Islamophobe and Homophobe—you know,someone whats gots some sense and knows when something is sick and wrong but gets called names cause of it?
Oh, right, the Germans I know are SO happy with unlimited tax-grubbing by their government and the malaise of the economy which that leads to.
Obama is more like a Chavez or Castro-style Marxist than European socialist.
French beret? No, I was thinking something a little more Italian.
Hussein is a RADICAL LEFTIST concoction of Bill Ayers, George Soros and other sick leftists who will destroy America to enslave her citizens.
Half of America gets it, the other half never will.
Lincoln said you can fool some of the people ALL OF THE TIME, he was talking about Democrats.
She makes a bunch of statements that do nothing but lead to a plug for a book. What a useless article.
I could never move to Europe, I like to take a shower every day.
DNC talking points. Not journalism. Robyn, if I were your editor I’d rip this up and make you write it over. Go to Europe if it’s so much better there, idiot.
It’s a book written by a labor lawyer. Just a small part of the PR momentum to convince the slaves that their new titanium chains are more comfortable. Once that is accepted, next season’s chains will be presented in anodized niobium with a choice of many shiny colors.
Lets see..mildly progressive
Taking over Banking, Investing, Automobile Manufacturing, Health Care, Student Loans, Oil Companies and refining, all for starters. Gad I'd hate to see what this nut case calls moderate or severe.
Yeah, and with HOT water too I'll bet!
Made possible and brought to you by means of the American security umbrella, paid for by American taxpayers.
It's easy to be prosperous when you don't have a defense budget to finance.
Completely dishonest B.S. article by a third rate democrat party operative in a loser unread newspaper.
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