The EU Dream

Fellow Americans, don't be put off by the slightly misleading title, "Welcome to the new cold war," of Andrew O'Hehir's excellent essay about the rise of the European Union, which is now arguably the United State's greatest rival, economically, politically, and culturally. The piece merits your attention, as O'Hehir does a great job of dispelling the widely circulated myths and lies that circulate in the US about "Old Europe."

It's time that Americans wake up to the fact that "Old Europe" is more progressive than the US, where one can only hope that the current reactionary backlash is only temporary, and that many Europeans enjoy a better quality of life than their American counterparts. If America would just show some humility, the EU might help the US to make the transition into the 21st century.

Franco bashing has become a national passtime for many, but French workers are both more productive than Americans in terms of hourly output and they enjoy the benefits of a 35-hour work week and more vacation time.

1. Productivity and Quality of Life

Much of American "productivity," Rifkin suggests, is accounted for by economic activity that might be better described as wasteful: military spending; the endlessly expanding police and prison bureaucracies; the spiraling cost of healthcare; suburban sprawl; the fast-food industry and its inevitable corollary, the weight-loss craze. Meaningful comparisons of living standards, he says, consistently favor the Europeans. In France, for instance, the work week is 35 hours and most employees take 10 to 12 weeks off every year, factors that clearly depress GDP.

2. Business (Aspiring entrepreneurs, pay attention to the following)

Perhaps more surprisingly, European business has not been strangled by the EU welfare state; in fact, quite the opposite is true. Europe has surpassed the United States in several high-tech and financial sectors, including wireless technology, grid computing and the insurance industry. The EU has a higher proportion of small businesses than the U.S., and their success rate is higher. American capitalists have begun to pay attention to all this. In Reid's book, Ford Motor Co. chairman Bill Ford explains that the company's Volvo subsidiary is more profitable than its U.S. manufacturing operation, even though wages and benefits are significantly higher in Sweden. Government-subsidized healthcare, child care, pensions and other social supports, Ford says, more than make up for the difference.

Oh, what the US could do if it we didn't waste so much on wars, prisons, and handouts to corporate special interests (Big Pharma, etc.)...

3. Freedom

The rhetoric of 'freedom' in the US really disgusts me, and the following quote just hits it on the head.

There is a large class of people in this country who are sympathetic to the "European dream" of a managed market economy in which cooperation is emphasized over competition, leisure is privileged over work, and the social costs of capitalism are closely regulated -- and you know who you are, gentle readers. But to most Americans "freedom" still means untrammeled private-property rights, open markets, workaholism and the belief that somehow we'll all die rich.

Being an American workaholic, I should get back to work, but first one more quote. Ira was pleased to see that Joyce got the final word in this piece.

I am a democrat," James Joyce wrote in 1916, while an entire generation of Europe's young men were slaughtering each other in the fields of Flanders. "I'll work and act for the social liberty and equality among all classes and sexes in the United States of the Europe of the future." People read that and laughed bitterly. Europe seemed poisoned by mustard gas and history; America was the land of liberty, democracy and the future. Nobody's laughing now.