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Europeans often tend to view their passivity as progressive and enlightened and our "imperialism" and strong belief in personal freedom as something less civilized. I find this quite naive and offensive.
They really should have more respect for the freedoms they do have and not take them for granted.
This whole question of freedoms is fraught and unclear. Which freedoms? The paramount freedom in America, which is rare and almost unique in the world, is about firearms. I can’t think of any other country that so enshrines the right to bear arms. But let’s examine the other entries in the Bill of Rights. I struggle to see how for example anything in the First Amendment is unique to the US, and absent in Western Europe. Or about search and seizure. Or about not incriminating oneself.
Instead I’d argue that the real distinction isn’t over basic rights, such as freedom of religion or assembly, or even juridical rights such as access to a free-trial and so on, but over the regulatory burden. The US is a freer place to do business, to own property and to pursue a craft. Europe simply put is more bureaucratic and more restrictive of what can be sold, what can be rented-out, or how a business could be started. Europe imposes higher literal and figurative taxes, the former of income-tax and the latter in the travails of registering things, being in compliance and so on.
So the lack of “respect for freedom” is really that of how enterprising people could monetize their talents. This is just easier to do in the US, than in Europe. But again I ask: is this really more of a freedom per se, or a matter of regulations?
As for the imperialism, we ought to remember how Europe was before 1914. Before the cruel comeuppance of the Great War, Europe was imperialism-central. It disavowed its imperialism by the mid 20th century, not from some moral epiphany, but from failure, loss and high burden. Were there not to have been a WW1 and WW2, it is plausible that in the late 20th century, the US would have been the crusader for the dignity of colonized peoples, and Europe the unregenerate bully. Neither is “personal freedom” somehow aligned (or anti-aligned) with a muscular foreign policy. The two are mutually unrelated. The 20th century is littered with nations that were irascibly aggressive towards neighbors or rivals, who viewed personal freedom – of their own citizens! – dimly.
The real lesson is that now for over a century, Europe has gotten kicked around. America has not. America hasn’t been humbled and thus has little reason to navel-gaze. So for America to have a muscular self-conception of its dignity doesn’t look hypocritical or naïve, as it would say for Germany or France.
But let’s return to this freedom thing. It’s easier to go to a nude beach in Germany than in the US. Isn’t that a sort of freedom, too?
And your solution is to put healthcare under the evil corrupt thumb of Joe Biden so that it can be bankrupted like social security, USPS, and Amtrak?
Yeah I'll take a hard pass on that. I already pay too much taxes. I prefer to pay too much for nothing in return than way too much for nothing in return.
The USPS works just fine. So does the interstate highway system. Medicare works reasonably well, otherwise you’d have senior citizens screaming to get rid of it. State Universities run very well and do a lot of top notch research. Public water and sewer systems work well enough to provide safe drinking water and adequate sewage disposal. Amtrak works well in places where it can run on its own dedicated track, rather than having to wait behind freight trains when running on tracks it doesn’t own. [I personally think it’s silly to run passenger trains on freight lines. It gives the whole Amtrak system a bad name.]
The whole notion that government can’t do anything right is propaganda. Not everything has to be privately run for profit. Do you really want law-enforcement to be a for-profit enterprise? I can imagine some pretty bad outcomes. Look at the private prison industry. Do you really want your doctor or local hospital to be driven mainly by the profit motive? Again, I can imagine some pretty bad results.
The mindset of this article is on a par with the lockdown monkeys and climate alarmists:
An effort to punish the population of the West for the sin of affluence and waste, to wear the hairshirt if you will. See the Club of Rome report, written over a period between 1968 and 1972, affiliated with MIT (link). This punitive ideology has been kicking around for a while;
To perpetuate a governing class and world bodies; or
Some combination of the two.
The underlying objective is to lower living standards, for everyone but themselves that is.This is nothing new.
The USPS works just fine. So does the interstate highway system. Medicare works reasonably well, otherwise you’d have senior citizens screaming to get rid of it. State Universities run very well and do a lot of top notch research. Public water and sewer systems work well enough to provide safe drinking water and adequate sewage disposal. Amtrak works well in places where it can run on its own dedicated track, rather than having to wait behind freight trains when running on tracks it doesn’t own. [I personally think it’s silly to run passenger trains on freight lines. It gives the whole Amtrak system a bad name.]
The whole notion that government can’t do anything right is propaganda. Not everything has to be privately run for profit. Do you really want law-enforcement to be a for-profit enterprise? I can imagine some pretty bad outcomes. Look at the private prison industry. Do you really want your doctor or local hospital to be driven mainly by the profit motive? Again, I can imagine some pretty bad results.
When's the last time the government killed a failing government program?
The USPS works just fine. So does the interstate highway system. Medicare works reasonably well, otherwise you’d have senior citizens screaming to get rid of it. State Universities run very well and do a lot of top notch research. Public water and sewer systems work well enough to provide safe drinking water and adequate sewage disposal. Amtrak works well in places where it can run on its own dedicated track, rather than having to wait behind freight trains when running on tracks it doesn’t own. [I personally think it’s silly to run passenger trains on freight lines. It gives the whole Amtrak system a bad name.]
The whole notion that government can’t do anything right is propaganda. Not everything has to be privately run for profit. Do you really want law-enforcement to be a for-profit enterprise? I can imagine some pretty bad outcomes. Look at the private prison industry. Do you really want your doctor or local hospital to be driven mainly by the profit motive? Again, I can imagine some pretty bad results.
USPS works fine? You must be talking about a different USPS than we have in the States? It’s a freaking mess. Always losing packages and slow delivery.
The problem with government run stuff is they have no reason to improve. There is no improvement incentive. It just doesn’t exist in the public sector. The other problem is that they, just like businesses, always want to grow. They can’t “stop” at given great service around their initial intent. It’s human nature to want to get bigger. The problem of course is public funding has its limits. This is why we are in the pickle we are with a college degree costing so much. These schools have tried to be everything to everyone over the years with expansion after expansion. Now the costs are unruly.
I really appreciate this about European culture. Many Americans have a "got to have the newest thing" attitude and it's a total waste of money and really bad for the environment. It's always a plot to get people to buy more stuff they don't need. Labor day sales, Memorial day sales, Black Friday sales, etc.
USPS works fine? You must be talking about a different USPS than we have in the States? It’s a freaking mess. Always losing packages and slow delivery.
The problem with government run stuff is they have no reason to improve. There is no improvement incentive. It just doesn’t exist in the public sector. The other problem is that they, just like businesses, always want to grow. They can’t “stop” at given great service around their initial intent. It’s human nature to want to get bigger. The problem of course is public funding has its limits. This is why we are in the pickle we are with a college degree costing so much. These schools have tried to be everything to everyone over the years with expansion after expansion. Now the costs are unruly.
Ok, so let’s get rid of Medicare. I’m tired of paying for old peoples’ healthcare. The free market will solve it.
Question: When European immigration to the US was very high from the mid 1800's to the mid 1900's was it because we had a "large hand in destroying" those nations? For instance, what did we do to Sweden in 1890 to make almost a million and half Swedes migrate to the US? What did we do to Italy to make five and half million Italians migrate to the US?
I'll check back for your answer. thanks in advance.
I'm talking about today, not during a time where America didn't earn a rep for meddling into other countries' affairs while being hyper individualistic at the expense of society.
Why would Swedes want to come here considering their country is 7th happiest in the world?
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Why would Swedes want to come here considering their country is 7th happiest in the world?
Maybe they don't like being taxed to death.
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