Why can't the USA be more like Europe?

You're another product of our union teachers where anti-Americanism rules. Well, chew on this:

Why is America’s poverty class richer than the average non-poor European?

The following is from the June 2004 Swedish Timbro Institute study, http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf:

“Poverty is a highly relative concept. As we saw in the preceding section, for example, 40 per cent of all Swedish households would rank among low-income households in the USA, and an even greater number in the poorer European countries would be classed as low income earnings by the American definition.”

“What does it mean to be poor in the USA? Major living standard surveys carried out in the USA at regular intervals show the poor to have a surprisingly high standard of living”;

see Table 3:2. (percentages of stuff poverty level households own):

Home ownership 45.9%

Car 72.8%

2 or more cars 30.2%

Air conditioning 76.6

Refrigerator 96.9

Washing machine 64.7

Drying cabinet/tumbler drier 55.6

Dishwasher 33.9

Garbage disposal 29.7

Microwave 73.3

Colour TV 97.3

2 or more colour TV sets 55.3

Cable or satellite TV 62.6

Wide screen TV 26.3

Video or DV 78.0

2 or more video and DVD players 25.3

Stereo 58.6

Telephone answering machine 35.3

Mobile phone 26.6

PC 24.6

Internet access 18.0

“Another indicator of the relatively good material standard of living among the American poor can be obtained by comparing dwelling space among poor households in the USA with average dwelling space in Europe (in other words all Europeans, not just their poverty level population). Table 3:3 compares dwelling space in various countries. Average total dwelling space in Europe is just under 1,000 sq. ft. In the USA it is 1,875 sq. ft for the average household and 1,200 sq. ft for poor households. Adjusting for size of household, one finds that poor households in the USA have slightly more dwelling space than the average European. The average American household has a home that is 80 per cent larger than its average European counterpart. Europeans, in other words, are more crowded in an American perspective.”

Table 3:3. Dwelling space. Various countries. (Nation/year study taken/living space per person)

Austria/year study taken 2000/living space per person 406.2 square feet

Belgium/1991/371.4

Denmark/2001/558.0

France/1996/378.8

Finland/2000/392.0

Germany/1998/424.0

Greece/1991/285.5

Ireland/2001/316.7

Italy/1991/462.7

Luxembourg/2001/517.3

Netherlands/2000/439.4

Portugal/1998/279.1

Spain/1991/278.1

Sweden/1997/460.1

UK/1996/381.1

All of Europe/average 395.7

USA poor households/1993/average 438.6

USA all households/1993/average 721.2

“Clearly, then, there are very big differences between the American and European economies. A long period of high growth has made the USA far and away the world’s richest region. For several centuries Europe led the world in terms of prosperity and progress. As little as a hundred years ago, much of the American continent was virgin wilderness. Today, a hundred years later, the USA has completely overtaken Europe to become the unrivalled leader of the world economy. Most Americans have a standard of living which the majority of Europeans will never come any where near. The really prosperous American regions have nearly twice the affluence of Europe. It is worth reminding ourselves what this means. In these regions the average American can get exactly twice as much of everything as the average European. Which goes to show the importance of an economic policy to stimulate growth.”

-Waiting time for Canadians, from the time of referral (Fraser Institute):

General surgery: 14.3 weeks

Orthopedic surgery: 40.3 weeks

Cardiovascular surgery: 8 weeks

Urology: 11.5 weeks

Internal medicine: 11.5 weeks

Radiation oncology: 5 weeks

Medical oncology: 4.9 weeks.

My wife was diagnosed with melanoma on a Thursday -- she was operated on the following Monday.

-“The problem our health car system faces today is access due to a lack of doctors, nurses, hospitals and technology.” Who said that? An American? Nope. Colon McMillan, president of the Canadian Mediacl Association, said that.

-Canada health care spending rose 38% in the last five years (Canadian Institute for Health Information).

-12/12/11 Canadian Broadcasting Company, cbc.ca: Surgery wait times longest in 18 years. Wait times for a referral to a specialist rose to 9.5 weeks in 2011 from 8.9 weeks in 2010. And the wait time between a visit to a specialist and actual medical treatment increased to 9.5 weeks from 9.3 weeks, according to the report.

Oh geez. France has a president, and makes and sells aircraft parts to the world. Germany is basically a nation-wide Silicon Valley; they embrace open source only because it aids in their industry. Which is a great reason to embrace open source, by the way. Capitalism works in Europe, and where people don't like private people owning and running things, there's poverty, simply put.

The rest are social issues politicians traditionally stick their finger to the wind on, so to speak, and Europe is no exception. When politicians try to dictate public opinion, that's not a good thing; say the words "illegal to oppose" real slow to understand why.

I apologize for my tone, but the question you phrased it demanded it, and I felt the need to clear up some misinformation for the good of the community.

Coming from an atheist's point of view, I think that laws like that take away the freedom for people. What kind of law is that saying that people can't believe what they want to believe, and saying that people aren't allowed to pray? I'm not American, I'm Australian, but maybe American's realise how stupid it would be to ban things like that because it would cause people to be forced to believe something which they don't. The only thing that I think is good about Europe from that whole thing you said, is that it's illegal to oppose gay marriage, every country should be the same and allow people to have some freedom, unlike all of those things you said about Europe.

I personally believe that catholic people can be quite crazy if they let it get to them to the point where they try to 'convert' other people to believe what they do, which is the only reason I don't like religious people, but apart from that people should have some freedom and be able to believe what they want, as long as they don't try to change others beliefs thinking their own is superior, which is exactly what you're doing.

Don't hate on other countries just because you are too proud of your own corrupt country which won't even allow people to have a say in what they want.

American society missed three most important intellectual movements that defined the Western Civilization: Reformation, Enlightenment, and Secularization. People who escaped Europe wanted to escape these movements and were whatsoever opposing any intellectual debate about these challenges. Puritans hoped establishing theocracy in the New World, and so did many other denominations. The new republic was not found as a secular state, but as Christian Republic. Until today, significant majority of American population is deeply religious and there is strong belief that you cannot be a good citizen if you are not affiliated with any christian denomination. Can you imagine any politician to be elected, regardless how good, intelligent, and hard working person is, if he would be atheist. You can have the biggest liars, wife beater and cheater, but deeply religious nut to run for office, and you can bet he will get elected. The religiosity is deeply integrated in American culture and society and it became part of the identity as is Islam in the Middle East.

Europe figured centuries ago that beliefs and faith does not make society better. Secularization was directed not for freedom of religion, but freedom FROM religion. France was the leader of the secularization movement in time, where Americans experienced second religious awakening and associated it with a new republic. European history since 1789 was exactly opposite, where they hoped to liberate the society from religious oppression and outright theft of the wealth in the name of faith.

Europe is not socialistic continent, but it has history on strong social consensus. Socialism is a totalitarian movement based on single party rule and control of the economy as was in Tito's Yugoslavia. Through past 2500 years, there is a debate in European society how much government should control the economy. It can be seen from the ruling of the Roman Republic, Diocletian reforms, or 18th century economic policies. Enlightenment leadership believed that it was a responsibility of the government to secure well being of their citizen.

Most European countries *are* capitalist countries with socialist triats. Not unlike the USA...

Most of your other points are also quite far off the mark. Like for example "Plus the French recognise that other cultures are better than their own and embrace other cultures. "

You don't know the French very well, do you. The French are some of the most chauvinistic people on the planet, and constantly look down on their neighbour cultures. Not all of them of course, but it's not uncommon at all.

First of all Germany 1938 = Nazis so that is automatically a bad idea. And those crazy frogs have a stagnating economy (and did even before the current crisis). Germany is doing better but is very capitalist and export driven. Moo moo moo, baaaa baaa baaaa. Quack

Americans are the offspring of Puritans and Calvinists, who fled out of Europe to escape facing the noose, for heresy and blasphemy of the Christian religion.

Nice trolling. Is it not more effective to just make your point directly?

Guns being banned are a good thing if it can be effectively enforced. I doubt that is possible in the US though and politically impossible. I do think that they should perhaps limit ownership of higher end fire arms.

We fought two wars so that we wouldn't HAVE to be "more like Europe"....I realize that you are a liberal and therefore woefully ignorant in History so I'll help you out...

The Revolutionary War

The War of 1812

Maybe if you spent less time whining about wanting socialism....and less time pretending that you are intelligent...and spent more time learning about history and economics you would understand...why we don't want to be more like Europe....

However, if you love Europe sooooooooo much...you're free to immigrate to the European socialist paradise of your choice....

Why don't you pack up and leave instead of whining and begging the rest of us to change just to accommodate you....

Where would people go from other countries for freedom? Maybe you should go live in Europe. It sounds lile you might like it.

wow, i used to think of the french as only cheese eating surrender monkeys but now I actually think better of them

Heres one for france and one for germany!!