Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?

[MrScorpio]

Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? Why You'd Probably Be Healthier and Wealthier in Germany
How Europe makes people's everyday life much more pleasant to live in.
August 17, 2010 |


The following is an adapted excerpt from Thomas Geoghegan's Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?: How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life, (The New Press 2010).

Americans may believe the United States is set up for the middle class, and Europe is set up for the bourgeois. Or let's put it this way: America is a great place to buy kitty litter at Wal-Mart and relatively cheap gas. But it is not designed for me, a professional without a lot of money. That's who Europe is for: people like me.

OK, as a union-side lawyer, Europe's really set up for people like my clients, or those who used to be my clients before the unions in America collapsed. Let's put my own self-interest aside: Where would my clients, who are not poor, who make $30,000 to $50,000 a year and yet keep coming up short, maybe by $100, $200 a month, really be better off?

That's easy: Europe. I can answer that as their lawyer, the way a doctor could answer about their health. The bottom two-thirds of America would be better off in Europe. I mean the people who have not had a raise (an hourly raise in real dollars) in maybe 40 years, and who do not even have a 401(k), nothing but Social Security, and either have no health insurance or pay deductibles of $2,000 or more. Sure, they'd be better off in Europe. When unemployed, they'd certainly be better off in Europe. Over there, even single men can get on welfare. And in much of Europe, contrary to what we hear, unemployment is much lower than over here.

The Rest: http://www.alternet.org/world/147859/were_you_born_on_the_wrong_continent_why_you%27d_probably_be_healthier_and_wealthier_in_germany/

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. Minimum wage in UK 5.93 Pounds Sterling ($9 dollars!!!)

[Greyhound]

6. And the U.K. is the U.S. of Europe.

[Go2Peace]

10. exactly. People do not realize that the UK is quite different from the rest of Europe

In it's approach to it's population. It is more like the US than most of Europe.

[grahamhgreen]

2. YES! I'd rather live in a country where I don't see our ederly eating out of trash cans.

- Any of the enlightened social democracies of Europe, SA, and Australasia...

[enid602]

4. SA

The only enlightened social democracy in SA is probably Argentina, and the elderly generally are not comfortable there, economically speaking. 15% of the population do not have papers, and live in unbelievably squalid conditions. They're better off than the Venezuelans, Colombians, Brazilians, etc, but that's not saying much.

[txlibdem]

8. South Africa, not South America

I think that's what the other poster meant.

[old mark]

5. Hey, them elderly have the RIGHT to do what they want - this is the land of the free

after all, not socialist Europe...:sarcasm:
(thought I better add that tag lest I be taken seriously)

mark

[Webster Green]

3. Wrong planet.

I've felt that way for some time. :smoke:

[Delphinus]

7. Hey!

Me too!

[Mimosa]

9. K&R n/t