[wideawake]

I disagree - the Europeans are us, but the US has siphoned off a significant proportion of the Europeans who had an entrepreneurial spirit.

Whenever I go to Europe, I'm always fascinated by how akin I feel to them and how distant, simultaneously.

We will either quickly combust or be gloriously reborn, our culture is too fast-paced to replicate Europe's modulated decline.

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

That's precisely the kind of thinking which always bothers me whenever I hear conservatives ranting and raving about the "evil Europeans". Yes, we have a more free market oriented culture. We are also more materialistic, more crass, and more culturally deprived. As many have remarked, America is the only country to go from barbarism to decadence without an intervening period of civilization. As I said earlier, there is more than one way of going down the toilet. Europe is taking its route there, and we are taking ours. This doesn't give us any reason to gloat.