Contrary to popular legend, Americans read and write more than Europeans
America may be moving to the left under Obama; indeed, as Newsweek put it, Americans are “all socialists now” and due to become “even more French” in the decade to come. Despite this, it’s still widely assumed, on both sides of the Atlantic, that Europe and America are essentially different—in their economies, societies and values. Americans have greater wealth inequality, pollute more and are much more religious, or so the logic goes.
This is a myth, argues Peter Baldwin—professor of history at UCLA and author of several books on the subject—in his essay for Prospect this month. It’s a myth that has long been politically expedient to play on—in Europe, the purveyors of anti-Americanism in Europe know that nothing unites like a common enemy, especially as Europeans are unable to agree on anything else. Meanwhile, being “too European” is a stick Obama’s right-wing opponents are fond of beating him with. But if one looks at the raw data on four key areas: the economy, social policy, the environment and—hardest of all to measure—religious and cultural attitudes, one sees, Baldwin says, that “Europe and the US are, in fact, parts of a common, big-tent grouping—call it the west, the Atlantic community, or the developed world.”
More interesting still, if one removes the predominantly black urban underclass (dealt an atrociously bad hand by history and by the racism that prevails today) from the crime, poverty and education stastics, American and European societies become even more indistinct. As Europe assimilates more and more immigrants, this is something Europeans would do well to take note of…
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Thank you for a well-researched and thought-out article. It is only my humble opinion, but the internet has not brought the sides of the Atlantic closer together. For the first time, Americans read first-hand the copiously-discussed disdain of them by the British and Europeans, and finally, sensing the hypocrisy, are beginning, finally, to return the favor.
A terrific, insightful article–with one glaringly unfair slap at American healthcare.
“The true disgrace of American healthcare is that infant mortality is higher than anywhere in Europe.”
Brian Carnall discussed the actual differences in live-birth intervention in the US and Europe.
http://www.overpopulation.com/articles/2002/cuba-vs-the-united-states-on-infant-mortality/
The relevant section:
“….the United States also easily has the most intensive system of emergency intervention to keep low birth weight and premature infants alive in the world. The United States is, for example, one of only a handful countries that keeps detailed statistics on early fetal mortality — the survival rate of infants who are born as early as the 20th week of gestation.
How does this skew the statistics? Because in the United States if an infant is born weighing only 400 grams and not breathing, a doctor will likely spend lot of time and money trying to revive that infant. If the infant does not survive — and the mortality rate for such infants is in excess of 50 percent — that sequence of events will be recorded as a live birth and then a death.
In many countries, however, (including many European countries) such severe medical intervention would not be attempted and, moreover, regardless of whether or not it was, this would be recorded as a fetal death rather than a live birth. That unfortunate infant would never show up in infant mortality statistics.”
Interesting article, but some of the data is out of date. A few tables would have helped make it more digestible.
While the differences between (Western) Europe and the US may be overstated at times, even Baldwin’s essay doesn’t get around the fact that they are still very pronounced. Particularly so, when it comes to social attitudes. Europeans are rightfully blamed for sometimes basing their stereotypes on fringe characteristics, but so does the article. Whenever trying to relativize some of the more extreme traits of US society -such as the prominence of faith- it often cites some of the minor countries or while admitting that they are not mainstream that they are not unrepresentative of all European countries. Or when conceding that US oil consumption is extremely high -here he should have made the proportions clear by revealing the unpleasantly clear-cut absolute figures- it tries to belittle it by linking it to output (our climate, however, does not in the least benefit by this nicety). Europe is wrong when it tries to blame the US for the world’s evils without admitting its own share and excesses. But Europe and the world cannot be blamed for having taken the Bush administration and its America at face value -for it used to be fairly representative of the majority for some time. The Obama administration of course already represents the shift, but so does the overwhelmingly positive European view of his America.
Trying to prove that the US is moving toward Europe or Europe moving towards the US – by means of carefully picked statistics – is a hard sell. Go see for yourselves and make up your own mind!
What is likely to strike you is that it is easy, at least on the surface, to communicate with people on both sides of the Atlantic, simply because English is spoken, if not everywhere but in a lot of places.
That may lead you to the conclusion that we are also similar in terms of culture and style of economy. That is not true, but it take more intense communication and more contacts to realise the differences. English is spoken in a lot of places of the World, but culture is just as different between different parts of the world as it is between Europe and the US.
Now, after 8, at best difficult, years with Bush, there is interest on both sides of the Atlantic to mend fences. However, the world has changed and initiative has moved east wards. To be honest, the concept of “Western” countries is today no more homogeneous than South-East Asia and South America – or, well, pick your own choice of cultures.
The concept of American leadership in the world is dead. Europe is not too keen of being the tail, even if it could wag the dog. But America, under Obama is welcome to re-join the world community as an equal player. It’s been long in the making. I believe Europe will need to run it’s own business in a multi-polar world. One thing is for sure, it will need to overcome it’s historical differences with Russia (part of Europe) and decide how it is going to avoid becoming a union of consumers deep in debt to China. Sorry, the US can’t and won’t help with that.
re white-collar crime.
The United States doesn’t recognize it, changes the name of it when it can’t avoid confronting an occasion of it.
We’re spending a fortune to return some of Bernie Madoff’s heist to the folks who tried to hide their money with him, and not only do we not ask where those ‘victims’ got their money, we don’t know where–if anyplace–the loot exists.
Every country at some point elects a village idiot, unfortunately we elected one twice!
Europeans consider themselves better than americans. but when they take america out of the picture and only look at themselves, they can’t stand themselves. they are full of self loathing. they have totally absorbed all of the liberal messages about the essentially evil nature of western civilization. the end result will be giving up on liberalism.
in the meantime they hate the US. it is an inverted self hatred. The US still has faith in itself and religion, which europeans have lost. The US is a reproach to their weakness and inability to defend their own culture. The europeans try to deny the abnormality of self loathing. They affect to despise the US because most of us do not hate ourselves. But deep down inside they know they are wrong. They look around the world and in their own countries at immigrants. They see that every other group loves itself and is loyal, in fact, chauvinistic. At a certain point, the european will say to himself, why do I hate myself? Am I not as good as other peoples?
liberalism is optional. Community is necessary, order is necessary, and some kind of religion is necessary. all else is up for grabs.
I lived in Germany for 25 years, have a PhD summa cum laude from a German university. I speak excellent German and good French and traveled extensively in Europe.
I find little to agree with in this article.
The article considers only gross statistical outcomes and does not consider systems or cause and effect.
It cherry-picks those statistics, many of which are meaningless. If you had traveled in Greece, Portugal, Spain or Ireland in 1969, you would have found pre-modern agricultural societies. All but Ireland were run by military dictatorships. All made the jump to modernity in the recent past. It is no surprise that in the last 40 years they have not caught up to the US in, for example, recycling.
The most valid comparison is with a country whose industrial development is similar to the US: Germany.
This is not to say that the two societies are similar: far from it. German society is better organized and disciplined than the US Army. Everything is uniform, down to the Leitz folders used in every office. Practically everything falls under a government program. Health care and pensions are mandatory and government-supervised. Education is government-run; private schools are an insignificant exception, and do not provide elite education, but serve alternative and remedial students. The social safety net insures that there is no real poverty, statistics notwithstanding. In fact, for many, unemployment is probably chosen as a comfortable lifestyle. Since the government has to support all of society, taxes are astronomical: the value added tax is 19% and gasoline costs about $6.00 a gallon. As a result, the average German has much less disposable income. Even the homes of the rich are modest by American standards, and 50% of Germans will never own a home, but will rent a 750 square-foot apartment for their entire lives. Is such a society, supervision is close and continual: Germans are not shy about giving total strangers on-the-spot correction to their behaviour. Crime committed by Germans is therefore far less than in America: 50% of the residents of German prisons are foreigners. Germany is a post-Christian country; the cathedrals and churches are museums, not places of worship. Germans don’t have children: the birth rate for German women is 1.3. Germans are patriotic only when the Eurovision competition and the World Cup soccer team is involved. The country has effectively demilitarized.
The Germans are immensely self-satisfied and wish for nothing better than the maintenance of the status quo. That won’t happen. The Moslem population is growing, mosques are being built left and right while the German population is ageing and the social welfare system is unsustainable. The Germans continue to whistle in the graveyard, hoping that the system will hold together long enpugh for them to say, “après moi, la deluge.”
I tend to agree, that the statistics were carefully picked to support the underpinning of the article.
As for the comparative section on education i strongly disagree with showing only a quantifiable comparison.
There’s a qualitiative and philosophical difference that are worlds apart.
European education is still defined by the traditional sense of education, where children are grilled intensely on subjects that vary from philosophy to physics. We’re speaking about secondary school. There’s an expectation in the societies not just for economic success in life, but also a certain cultural wealth. This translates to people with whom you can converse with a good general understanding on many subjects.
Something not easily achieved with many Americans of the same social level.
Literacy – it’s not how much you read, but what you read.
This small world, in which the author and readers – all impeccably educated and articulate doesn’t show the day-to-day idiots, that admittedly exist in Europe, but which I can safely say are more prominent in the US.
Pragmatism has a wealth of advantage to a society – in particular giving it forward momentum, but it also has a cost.
Practically, I work with many Americans, ranging from BA to MA holders and you’ll be surprised to find that their written skills are poor at best. Many of us Europeans, albeit, English being our second language, are much more detailed and attentive to correct language than our American counterparts.
Interesting article, interesting use of statistics:
“Although oil use per capita is high in America, measured as a function of economic production (in other words, putting the input in relation to the output) it remains within European norms, and indeed lower than in Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Iceland. Between 1990 and 2002, America’s carbon dioxide output rose, but per unit of GDP it fell by 17 per cent—a greater reduction than in nine western European countries.”
Put simply:
I make $100, I use 100 L of petrol. Next year, I’ll make $200, and use only 166 L of petrol. And the year after that, I’ll make $400, and use even less petrol per capita. See – I’m protecting the environment !
And my neighbour ? For making his $10 annual income, he used 10 litres of petrol. This year, he made $20, and used 20 L of petrol for that !!! What a waste of resources !!!
Rich people do not make an economy strong. What makes the country wealthy is its people.
Rethug neo con thinking:
Economy: Do nothing, let rich people trickle the money down even when trillions have vanished.
Healthcare: It’s ok that healthcare is for profit and that my neighbor with a degenerative heart condition cannot even qualify for insurance.
Taxes: No thanks!
You communist!… Next you’ll want tax payers to pay for roads, schools, police, safety regulations, and a standing army. Before you know it, we’ll be paying somewhat more in taxes and have to suffer with standards of education, life expectancy, happiness, and heathiness that might begin to compare with countries in Western Europe….. Damn socialists!
Those “socialist” countries? They’re happy!
“World’s Happiest Places: A new report reveals where people feel most positive about their lives”
So America is #1, right? Hmmm.
You know those horrible “socialist” European countries that the wingnuts are always screeching about? They’re hell, right? Depressing, soulless gulags of government-controlled misery, lacking all the glorious freedoms that make us the best country on Earth?
Oddly enough, Forbes magazine (whose motto is “The Capitalist Tool”) reports that:
…happiness levels are highest in northern European countries.
How can this be? And when will Fox News report it?
cal in cali’s diary :: ::
Answers: 1) Read the article. 2) Never.
The Top 10 list of Happiest Countries is as follows:
Denmark
Finland
Netherlands
Sweden
Ireland
Canada
Switzerland
New Zealand
Norway
Belgium
This must really burn up the wingnuts! Our socialist neighbor Canada is #6! And the US didn’t make the top ten.
Well, maybe it’s OK if we’re not happy, because we work hard, while those lazy nanny-state losers lay around all day being coddled…..
While the global economic crisis has taken a toll on every nation, the countries that scored at the top still boast some of the highest gross domestic product per capita in the world. Denmark, which got the highest score, is not only a wealthy country, it’s also highly productive, with a 2009 GDP per capita of $68,000, according to the International Monetary Fund. The United States’ GDP per capita, by contrast, is $47,335.
How can this be? They’re “socialist” and yet they are productive and have high GDP? Higher than the world’s bastion of capitalism?
Glenn Beck’s mind will not be able to compute this data.
Now, if President Obama takes any steps towards the policies that help create these levels of happiness in those countries’ citizens, the wingnuts will scream bloody murder. Fox News is already reporting the “end of capitalism.” Because its our God-given right to make as much money as possible and achieve the American Dream. Then we’ll all be happy, right?
Hmm. The article states:
Wealth alone does not bring the greatest degree of happiness.
Shocking! Why, that sounds like a socialist statement right there! Were these words actually printed in Forbes magazine?
The wingnuts would probably say that those “socialists” are so happy because they’re all on welfare, right?
Low unemployment also contributes to happiness. “One thing we know for sure,” says the OECD’s Chapple, “not having a job makes one substantially less satisfied.” Denmark’s unemployment rate is just 2%, according the C.I.A.’s World Factbook. Norway’s is just 2.6%. The Netherlands: just 4.5%. Many economists concur that a 4% unemployment rate reflects a stable economy. The U.S. unemployment rate is currently 9%.
Ouch.
Let’s hear more from the Republicans about how we can never be more like Europe, because they’re all socialists and that’s bad, bad, evil and bad. No one in America would want social policies that actual contribute to people feeling more content with their lives, right?
This ranking was based on a Gallup World Poll that asked questions like:
Did you enjoy something you did yesterday? Were you proud of something you did yesterday? Did you learn something yesterday? Were you treated with respect yesterday?
Try asking yourself those questions. And think about how people in a truly happy country answered them.