Posted on 05/03/2010 7:10:45 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
There's a growing consensus, particularly on the right, that the United States is going the way of Europe. The evidence supporting such a claim is, in some ways, strong given the recent passage of "universal" health care, jobless benefits lacking an endpoint and an explosion of government spending that continues to rise in terms of GDP.
Considering the increasing cost of government alone, it's perhaps easy to see how the future in some ways looks bleakly European. Happily, however, the basic supposition is a flawed one, and it's one that ignores the makeup of individuals in the U.S. To put it very plainly, while many of us are descendants of Europeans, we're not like them. As such, the odds of the U.S. morphing into Europe are happily quite slim.
To understand why the U.S. will be fine over the long run, we have to remember that we're a "nation of immigrants." This is an important distinction, because as Johns Hopkins professor John D. Gartner says in his 2005 book, The Hypomanic Edge, "a 'nation of immigrants' represents a highly skewed and unusual 'self selected' population."
We're for the most part descended from the kind of individuals who possessed what historian John Steele Gordon referred to as the "get up and go" that drove them to leave the comforts of home in order to make their highly uncertain way in the new world that was the United States. We're different because we're descended from those who had the courage and drive to leave feudal, excessive taxing, warmongering governments. Simple as that.
When libertarian philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville traveled the U.S. in the 1830s, he described the new arrivals to the U.S. as "restless in the midst of abundance,"
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Sc*ew Forbes magazine - they helped elect Obama. One one of their writers who is a money manager is Obama’s closest advisor and early money person in Chicago. Thanks to Fobes magazine - Hussein is POTUS and the US is headed towards Zimbabwe. We wish we were going the way of Europe.
I see the Euro-peon-ization of America happening. Obviously Forbes does not.
If you believe in Polls, here one to consider :
According to a poll cited by Gartner, when asked “Do you think that starting a new business is a respected occupation in your community?”, 91% of Americans polled said yes vs. 28% of British and 8% of Japanese respondents.
As an aside -— has anyone in this forum bothered to look at some of those “Start Your Own Small Business” magazines lately ? ( e.g. INC, ENTREPRENEUR, etc. ). Those pages are filled with offers for you to “work at home and start taking your life back” ( or so the ad goes ). Even on Rush Limbaugh and other talk shows in this country, we got ad after ad inviting people to start their own business using their “proven” and “guaranteed” “turnkey” ( common key words I’ve heard over and over again ) method.
Just wonder how many actually have been profitable after they responded to these advertisements.
I wonder how many of these ads would be taken seriously in Europe or Japan...
If you believe in Polls, here one to consider :
According to a poll cited by Gartner, when asked “Do you think that starting a new business is a respected occupation in your community?”, 91% of Americans polled said yes vs. 28% of British and 8% of Japanese respondents.
As an aside -— has anyone in this forum bothered to look at some of those “Start Your Own Small Business” magazines lately ? ( e.g. INC, ENTREPRENEUR, etc. ). Those pages are filled with offers for you to “work at home and start taking your life back” ( or so the ad goes ). Even on Rush Limbaugh and other talk shows in this country, we got ad after ad inviting people to start their own business using their “proven” and “guaranteed” “turnkey” ( common key words I’ve heard over and over again ) method.
Just wonder how many actually have been profitable after they responded to these advertisements.
I wonder how many of these ads would be taken seriously in Europe or Japan...
BS. 85% of us were born here. And what nation is not a nation of immigrants. Even the so-called Native Americans were immigrants.
What sets America apart from Europe is our Constitution and the focus on individual liberties. The more we drift into European socialism and the welfare state, the more we become like Europe.
And our pro-popultion growth immigration policies that bring in 1.2 million people a year, 87% of whom are minorities as classified by the USG, and most of whom are poor, unskilled, and uneducated, are making more people dependent upon the welfare state. 53% of immigrant headed households are on welfare.
The U.S. adds one international migrant (net) every 34 seconds. Immigrants account for one in 8 U.S. residents, the highest level in more than 80 years. In 1970 it was one in 21; in 1980 it was one in 16; and in 1990 it was one in 13. In a decade, it will be one in 7, the highest it has been in our history. And by 2050, one in 5 residents of the U.S. will be foreign-born. Demography is destiny.,
Well then...the obvious solution is to get rid of that pesky entrepreneurial spirit isn't it! Hey, I mean ya gotta think like this president to come up with solutions to eliminate all of the roadblocks to his "Change Strategy."
That poll sounds fairly accurate but while the American people are going away from Leftism those in big government and big business are running toward it at a faster and faster rate.
“As such, the odds of the U.S. morphing into Europe are happily quite slim.
To understand why the U.S. will be fine over the long run, we have to remember that we’re a “nation of immigrants.”
Mr. Tamny overlooks the multi-trillion $ debt we’re incurring, and seems to think the alarming rate of the growth of government is an easily surmountable condition. The current regime’s relentless attacks on the market economy and institution of a statist one are going to bring us down the road not to Europe, but third-world status.
Some 20 million of this “nation of immigrants” are here illegally, with no intention of assimilating into American culture.
Not to mention the increasingly irreconciliable ideological gap.
And that just scratches the surface.. I don’t hold nearly the same level of optimism about America’s future Mr. Tamny does. The 2010 elections are going to tell volumes about the kind of country we are going to have in the future.
John Tamny: “Everything is fine, everyone is a virtual George Washington, go back to sleep.”
And the immigrants made it easy for their children, so that they didn’t have to suffer as had the parents, and the children became luxuriant, indolent and Utopian in outlook, for not having to suffer through life, and voted in socialism. And the population watched TV and realized they didn’t have the income and homes of Brad Pit and the superstar wealthy and they became envious and demanded rights and entitlements to ease their sense of grievance and injustice. And slowly the educated also realized their racism and niggardly support to the poor and oppressed and promised to make good on the Utopian American dream they had learned in university. And the specter of Karl Marx was on the land and remains so to this day.
“.. the odds of the U.S. morphing into Europe are happily quite slim.”
The odds of morphing into Mexico, however.....
Entrepreneurial don’t mean squat in an overly litigious over regulated society.
We are not going the way of Europe, we are going EXACTLY the way of the Roman Empire (which was most of Europe).
Visigoths = Mexicans/Latin Americans
Denari = Dollar
Obama = Nero
US Gov = Roman Senate in late Roman Empire
What comes next, well for Europe,it was the Dark Ages.
The problem isn't the government outlawing the mom & pop shop or the single person business. The problem is cutting off the growth path above a family business. How many laws, regulations or taxes start applying at various small but growing business sizes? Which start at 15 or 25 or 50 employees? How many business owners decide that a 24 person business is big enough because that 25 employee is too expensive? How will the new financial regulations stifle businesses which need a quick quarter million dollars of investment to grow past the mom & pop stage?
Both bigger businesses and government want to keep growing businesses down. Walmart doesn't want to see a new "Walmart" grow up and start threatening them, so they are more than glad to have a hundred regulations with which to crush any smaller competitor. Similarly legislators hate businesses which are big enough to provide their owners financial independence but not large enough where they feel the need to pay protection money.
I see a whole lot of “entrepreneurs” out there who are more than happy to line-up and cut corrupt deals with the Obama Administration if it will gain them favor (or kneecap their competition)
And the health change bill can never pass either. Sheesh, when will the spin cycle end from Stinkington, DC?
Will entrepreneurs continue to produce when over 50% of their production is taken away to support able bodied sluggards?
Just wonder how many actually have been profitable after they responded to these advertisements.
Probably very very few. To start a business, one has to have their own ideas. Something new that addresses a need, something people will pay to have or use.
NOT making money on someone else's efforts or property..that is one of the things that got us into this mess.
At some point, somewhere, someone has to originate and MAKE something real.
Now, before I get the usual "What about Google/Amazon/etc." challenges, consider that Google makes money on other peoples' content, images, writings, and ideas, by attracting views to ads. Amazon sells other peoples' products. Despite success and stock gains, someone, somewhere has to actually, manually DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE before other people can line up and get a piece of it.
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