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I honestly blame Catholicism. Truly, truly, I believe that to be Southern Europe's downfall. Catholicism is a very socialist religion that puts great shame on working hard to improve your living standards. Everyone is supposed to live in happy poverty. Germanic Europe managed to get rid of Catholicism from their countries (with the exception of a few pockets in Netherlands and Germany) and look at how successful those countries are.
I don't have anything against Catholics. My biological father's family are all Catholic. But I am very glad that America still has the Protestant work ethic and not the Catholic work ethic.
except there ( SE) is a lot of countries which are not Catholic, but Orthodox, and that is much worse. germany is HALF Catholic and Catholic Bavaria is perfectly prosperous, even better than some northern lands.
Yup! The only two exceptions are Switzerland (which has a significant protestant population) and Austria. Well, France too maybe. But the French have been some of the least religious people on Earth for centuries now. And their economy has never exactly been stellar. Somewhere between Spain and Sweden is France.
Ah yes ... .but if you look at Switzerland, the industrial cantons are the protestant ones. Geneva, Basel, Zurich. The catholic cantons are the rural ones.
Those Asians certainly have a hellacious work ethic. Who'd uh thunk they were Protestants.
There is also the confucious work ethic. It is an already coined term and it refers to the extremely strong work ethic displayed among the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese.
Your theory may also explain why very solidly catholic countries such as Poland or Ireland, neither of which were in southern Europe, remained largely agrarian.
absolutely NOT true. At least Poland. Besides being agrarian is also NOT a negative in the modern world.
In the modern EU Poland is one of the GROWING ECONOMIES quite to the contrary of struggling EU ones.
There is also the confucious work ethic. It is an already coined term and it refers to the extremely strong work ethic displayed among the Chinese, Koreans, and Japanese.
nowadays Chinese don't have even a slightest Confucian influence - all the thanks to "cultural revolution" of Mao.
except there ( SE) is a lot of countries which are not Catholic, but Orthodox, and that is much worse. germany is HALF Catholic and Catholic Bavaria is perfectly prosperous, even better than some northern lands.
America circa 2013 does not have ANY work ethic
My Greek Orthodox friend says it was the same as Catholicism. They just celebrate Easter on different days or something.
Germany was two-thirds protestant. Today, half the protestants (particularly those in East Germany) identify as agnostics or atheist.
And Munich (Catholic majority) is fun, but it isn't the economic powerhouse that Frankfurt(Protestant majority) is.
When I was coming back from Netherlands a German guy was sitting next to me and I asked him where I should visit if I was to go to Germany. He literally said go to the Catholic areas. The catholic areas have more fun. The Protestant areas are more boring.
He truly said that. And I can only imagine the protestant areas are more boring because they are more work oriented and less party party.
nowadays Chinese don't have even a slightest Confucian influence - all the thanks to "cultural revolution" of Mao.
I live with a Chinese man. One who actually grew up through the revolution. I have never seen a harder working human being on earth. We have a few Buddhist decorations and our furniture is arranged for good Feng Shui, so some of the culture must still be there.
The Confucian work ethic is in him for sure.
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