Dream On America

I find three things interesting:


1 - The author glamouizes the Euorpean Union, even though most Europeans dislike it, and of the only 40% who vote in the European elections, most voted for parties that opposed the E.U. in the first place. Moral of my comment--don't expect the E.U. to be perfect.....

2 - THe author neglectesd to mention how countries like France and the Netherlands have actually been chopping thier social programs quite a bit.

3 - I was impressed by how critical the British newspapers were of the Bush administration. This maked me realize how U.S. centric our own media is. Also, comapred to the BBC, even our own CBC is a U.S. sympathizer.


**Headlines in the British press were almost contemptuous: DEFIANT BUSH DOES NOT MENTION THE WAR, HAVE I GOT NUKES FOR YOU and HIS SECOND-TERM MISSION: TO END TYRANNY ON EARTH. Has this administration learned nothing from Iraq, they asked? Can this White House really expect to command support from the rest of the world, with its different strengths and different dreams? The failure of the American Dream has only been highlighted by the country's foreign-policy failures, not caused by them. The true danger is that Americans do not realize this, lost in the reveries of greatness, speechifying about liberty and freedom


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The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter --

Winston Churchill

T.R. Reid in his book United States of Europe expands on this same subject. T.R. Reid agrees that there is a European movement that will spread into the U.S. as they evolve into the next super power.

Kevin

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"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
--Bertrand Russell

Do you really think there will be one "Superpower" in the future? Europe has huge problems with a declining birth rate, and the possibility of the E.U. splitting up some day.

I am honestly not sold on the E.U., although they will eventually build a military equivalent to the U.S. military in terms of size.

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The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter --

Winston Churchill

The suffocating statism of the EU will choke off economic growth, subsidizing anything that moves is great short-term politics, but bad for the long term. The rest of the world doesn't have to worry about being surpassed by the EU in any way, shape or form - they're busy gazing into their navels...

I am no great fan of the EU either, Perturbed. But I must say that when Portugal and Greece joined, rather than being treated as a source of cheap labor to undermine the living standards of Germany and France, these countries were brought up to EU standard. How different to NAFTA and Mexico. There is a lot of opposition in Europe to a centralized bureaucratic EU. Lets hope the opposition is successful and a genuine federal Europe arises. I think the EU looks like a humane and democratic alternative to most people only because the US has evolved in such a highly authoritarian and inegalitarian direction in the last 25 years. (When you are used to being clubbed with a two by four, being beaten with a broom handle looks good.)

It is true that social gains have been eroded in Europe too. But due to the more democratic nature of the governments there it will be much easier for them to restore, or create new and better social programs, than here in Canada, and esp. the USA.

As for the EU being statist and the US not so, Anon. this is a lot of hog wash. The difference between having 35% of your GDP government (US) and 43% (UK) is only of minor significance. It is NOT an absolute difference and is thus one more straw man argument. And this minor difference only exists because the US lacks a universal health care system. Add the 8-10% of the GDP most European countries spend on health care and the US is up to Euro levels of government spending. Furthermore, it is mostly a different kind of govt. spending. Europeans spend way less p.c. GDP on war and have way fewer people in prison p.c. Much, much more of US statism goes to destructive ends, than does the Euro variety.

And imagine if they ever send one unified national EU team to the Olympics.

G

Hi anon. You sound like the CIA, that predicts the E.U. will split up in 15 years due to social spending.


I think the E.U. will split up simply because their citizens hate it, and their birth rate is way too low.

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The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter --

Winston Churchill

"Hi anon. You sound like the CIA, that predicts the E.U. will split up in 15 years due to social spending."

I wouldn't worry about that prediction. Remember these are the guys that didn't see the collapse of the USSR as a real possibility. Course their job was to phoney up the "facts" to support the military industrial complex...