Are Americans Becoming Europeans?

Techcentralstation.com ^ | 21. October, 2005 | James K. Glassman

[Eurotwit]

MILAN - I have just finished a two-week trip to Europe -- my honeymoon, if you must know -- and, as usual with a European trip, I have come away with two completely different impressions.

Europe, or at least the parts I go to, is a wonderful place to live and to visit. It's beautiful; the food is great; the people are generally warm and relaxed. If there is a greater pleasure than eating a plate of Insalata Caprese (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil) on a sunny terrace on the Amalfi Coast with the islands where the Sirens lured Ulysses in the distance, then I haven't found it yet.

But, when it comes to public policy, Europe has taken a wrong turn. Its welfare state has sapped initiative and driven jobs abroad; its treatment of immigrants is shameful; unemployment is in the double digits; health policy is making people sicker; and foreign policy is based on isolationism and moral posturing.

The results are predictable: The countries that use the euro will grow 1.2 percent this year, according to The Economist; the U.S. will grow 3.5 percent. Similar disparity has prevailed for a decade, and Americans today have a living standard about one-third higher. The notion that Europe will be able to compete with resurgent China and India in the next 30 years is laughable.

Certainly, however, there isn't just a single Europe. The countries on the outer edges -- Britain, Poland, Ireland, Portugal, Estonia, and so on -- remain fairly aspirational, leaning in the direction of American liberalism (in the best sense of that word -- a tendency to place freedom, economic and personal, number-one on a list of values). They haven't given in to the smug complacency of France, Germany, Belgium and (I'm sad to say) Spain. Italy, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries are somewhere in between.

It's also true that Europe is changing. By a whisker, Germany just elected a new coalition government, headed by Angela Merkel, a woman who understands that her country's welfare and tax system can't endure. There are signs that even the French recognize the dangers of nationalized industries and 35-hour work weeks imposed from above.

Still, don't expect much soon in the way of European economic transformation. This is the life they have chosen -- one in which, they believe, the state relieves them of the stress of a market society. But the price is very high. Surveys show rampant European unhappiness and pessimism. European birth rates have fallen so sharply that populations are headed for steep declines. Why? Sadly, couples don't place a high priority on bringing children into the paradise they've created.

But Europeans will have to find their own path. My concern is with Americans. Is it inevitable that, as we grow more prosperous, we will become more like Europe -- losing initiative, insisting that our governments coddle us?

I worry that we are beginning to see the initial signs of just such a turn for the worse. A distinguished 20-member panel of experts convened by the National Academies, America's top science advisory group, has warned in a new study that the U.S. "could soon lose its privileged position" as the world's top innovator and growth engine. With competitors "who live just a mouse click away," we stand to lose high-paying jobs, especially to Asia.

Key statistics: The number of U.S. doctorates in science and engineering peaked in 1998. In 1970, the U.S. accounted for more than half such degrees; by 2010, just 15 percent. By 2010, China will produce more science and engineering doctoral graduates that we will.

The whiners think that we can opt out of a globalized world, cocoon ourselves in protectionism. In fact, if we take that course, the crack-up will come sooner.

The Academies panel takes a more constructive course, with a list of that focuses on science teaching in high school and college and on more government spending on basic research in science. I agree. It's also imperative that we cut our lofty corporate tax rates, which are sending thousands of good jobs abroad.

But government action is only part of the solution. The personal counts more. America has a choice: more like Europe, or more like Asia. Actually, Asia has become more like America in recent years, so the real choice is whether we want to be complacent Europeans or to our hard-working, compassionate, imaginative American selves.

[ladtx]

I put a quarter million miles on mine before I got rid of it. It was nice while we had it in Germany. The only place where I could set the cruise control at 100 mph. It didn't take long to get to the Bavarian Alps to go skiing. Of course I still had to stay in the right lane to make way for the VW beetles passing me on the left.

[Lou L]

If there is a greater pleasure than eating a plate of Insalata Caprese (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil) on a sunny terrace on the Amalfi Coast with the islands where the Sirens lured Ulysses in the distance, then I haven't found it yet.

Sure there is, you little Euro-twerp. How about Wings & beer at a Super Bowl party with two dozen friends, watching the game on a 60" HDTV?

[OldFriend]

LOLOL......thanks for the picture of Beetles passing you!

My son finally sold second BMW convertible for a more business like four door all wheel drive. Oh he loves that car!

It helps to have the military discount on car insurance too.

[Eurotwit]

Sign me up for both :-)

[OldFriend]

My son was stationed in outhern bavaria Germany for four years, serving his country, and glad to be doing so.

While it may sound awful to you, we're safe because they serve in uniform.

[OldFriend]

My son was stationed in southern bavaria Germany for four years, serving his country, and glad to be doing so.

While it may sound awful to you, we're safe because they serve in uniform.

[RedWhiteBlue]

Insalata Caprese (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil)

Ha! Coincidentally, that dish is on my menu for the evening meal, using fresh basil from my little culinary herb garden.

[aumrl]

I hope we can continue to be the WESTERN ISLANDS.

[Lou L]

Can I assume that "Euro-twerp" is no relation?? :-)

[Eurotwit]

His my mom :-)


Seriously though, I thought the author was American.

[Dane]

When I visited Germany in 1985 I stayed with a family in Nuremburg.

They took me up to see the Iron Curtain. About a mile before the border, there was a lone West German policeman on the side of the highway in green, asked for my passport and waved us on.

The border was actually a river/creek and on the other side was an East German village. The bank of the river was barbed wired and no doubt the river/creek was mined. The thing I noticed was that East German flags were literally strewn everywhere in that village.

[gitmo]

Key statistics: The number of U.S. doctorates in science and engineering peaked in 1998. In 1970, the U.S. accounted for more than half such degrees; by 2010, just 15 percent. By 2010, China will produce more science and engineering doctoral graduates that we will.

This is hardly the driving factor behind the US dominance in technology. Some people attribute race (caucasian), some people attribute something inherent in the "American work ethic", some people say we have more natural resources. All easily discounted.

The American form of government, built on a foundation of individual liberty and a very limited government, provides an atmosphere that incubates economic growth and technological advancement.

Our form of government has been diluted over the last 50 years, but there are hopeful signs that we may be starting to turn back to our rightful (Constitutional) form of government.

[pickrell]

"...I visited Germany in 1985 and it was how you described it. I then went back 9 years later and noticed that it changed. There was grafitti everywhere and the people seemed disenchanted and cynical..."

Your point is a good one. I can find no better example of the corrosiveness of persons awaiting government help. Even in a society like that of divided Germany, where a tremendous group acceptance of individual responsibility and individual initiative has held for generations; bring enough new persons in who have never felt and accepted the same life view, and the best aspects of that society begin to melt away.

It's not that people won't try to inculcate the new views into the introduced population- it's that the benefits of those responsibilities are so alien and unknown to the newcomers, and the sense of victimization so prevalent, that the newcomers haven't the faith or the drive to adapt.

Then, watch how the quality of life declines for all, as the graffiti blossoms and the dignity wilts. Germany stands as a "downtown Akron" for the world to see; an example of cultural dilution.

That cultural dilution cannot be masked by racial overtones, since in this case the two Germanies were once one, and re-united only after decades of psychological decay in the leftist utopia of the 'worker's paradise'. It displays a uniquely clean and unarguable comparison of the mental health effects of collectivism.

Sadly, it also illustrates the fragility of cultures based upon personal pride when assailed by 'entitlementalism' (to coin a phrase).

[tomjohn77]

I think Germany or West Germany is suffering because of the stagnation in the East. Money are transfered into the Eastern part from West. I wonder where West Germany would have been today if they did not unify before East Germany was on its feet.

[tomjohn77]

Just wishtaughts from you. There are so many skilled Europeans and they are very good educated.

[ladtx]

Many of the East Geman villages that were within eyesight of the fence weren't occupied by anyone, they were kept up by the East German army and made to look like normal towns. Guess they didn't want their citizens to be enticed to cross the fence, even though it would have been difficult crossing the mine fields and razor wire and the machine gun fire from the guard towers. I've got some pictures of the border area near Fulda, I need to post them here some time.

[miss marmelstein]

I was making a reference to the teeth-grinding German love of order and control. I said nothing about our great men and women serving abroad. Get a grip.

[OldFriend]

Oh yes, you like the Crown Heights riots and the riots in Toledo better?

Someone needs to get into the 21th. century.

[durasell]

Let me throw something out here --

Because of technology and inexpensive travel, we're currently entering into an age of a global popular culture.

[miss marmelstein]

Hmmm....sounds like you have a little control issue yourself...