Posted on 03/04/2005 3:09:01 PM PST by quidnunc
The heightened tensions between the United States and Europe since 2000 have been widely discussed in terms of competing foreign policy visions. The Bush administration’s insistence on a robust and independent response to terrorism contrasted with the frequently more cautious European policies. At the end of the day, these complex alternatives seemed to boil down to a choice between unilateralism and multilateralism, a distinction that took on a polemical sharpness during the U.S. presidential election.
Although different approaches to terrorism, Afghanistan, and Iraq—not to mention the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians—have contributed significantly to the transatlantic distemper, there is also an economic dimension that underpins European suspicion of the United States and encourages a rhetoric of anti-Americanism in intra-European political discourse.
In 2000 the European Union initiated its so-called Lisbon Process, with the stated goal of becoming “the most competitive and dynamic, knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, creating more and better jobs and greater social cohesion” by the year 2010. To aspire to a more dynamic economy is hardly controversial, but the Lisbon Process was also, in effect, a unilateral declaration of competition with the United States. The race between the euro and the dollar on world currency markets added to the sense of competition between two systems that had once been considered part of an integrated “Atlantic West” in the not-so-distant years of the Cold War.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at hooverdigest.org ...
?What?
It's all about envy, and always will be.
Nice and informative article. Although we already all figured that was the case anyway ;)
? watch-wait?
/high U.S.A. gas prices (mobility)?
actually one of the tiny (even for European) countries, like Lichtenstein has a higher per capita income than the U.S. also, one of the Scandinavian ones, like Norway, is also higher. still, there is at most only a few million people living in each country.
Does anybody have a link to that Vienna Chamber of Labor report the guy quotes ? I've never heard of it.
Not So!
If the European Union were a state in the USA it would belong to the poorest group of states. France, Italy, Great Britain and Germany have lower GDP per capita than all but four of the states in the United States. In fact, GDP per capita is lower in the vast majority of the EU-countries (EU 15) than in most of the individual American states. This puts Europeans at a level of prosperity on par with states such as Arkansas, Mississippi and West Virginia. Only the miniscule country of Luxembourg has higher per capita GDP than the average state in the USA.
Read about it here:
Europe, as a whole is much poorer than the U.S. even many European countries are poorer, per capita, than many U.S. states. but, individually, in some European countries, Lichtenstein and Norway, the per capita income is higher than that of the whole U.S.
That is why (IMHO) the Tenth Commandment is the most important.
Europe, as a whole is much poorer than the U.S. even many European countries are poorer, per capita, than many U.S. states. but, individually, in some European countries, Lichtenstein and Norway, the per capita income is higher than that of the whole U.S. also, the bigger European economies you mentioned are poorer, and the ones that are richer tend to have few people living there. i.e. in Lichtenstein more people work there than live there (they commute from other countries).
It's hard to know how much new anti-Americanism there is, since our press has taken such delight in "discovering" a decades-old phenomenon as a tactic to try to discredit President Bush. I think the real reason behind much of the current anti-Americanism is that we have (mostly) avoided Socialism, and we're doing great economically, while Europe has whole-heartedly embraced Socialism, which was supposed to bring utopia on Earth, and its economies are struggling.
According to United Nations statistics, per capita purchasing power in the United States in 2002 was $35,750, which was surpassed only by Luxembourg, Norway, and Ireland among E.U. nations.
Ireland! 25 years ago, who would have thought that? Their turnaround is an extraordinary story.
sorry to get picky, but while Liechtenstein and Norway are not part of the EU, they are European. also, perhaps the country was Luxembourg. the original reply had some tiny country, like Lichtenstein. plus, there are more reports than the Timbro study. it was simply a pointing out that some European counties have a higher per capita income than the U.S.
In my opinion, broad articles like these based on simple PPP computations are usually too lightweight to be relied on.
Envy about what? About living in fashionable Midwest? Your culture? Your smartness? I don't think so
You mostly envy our power and individual courage, but the list is long indeed.
Got bandwidth?
why am I talking to some stupid redneck called Mr Mojo, anyway?
yes, I got bandwidht. What about you, got a passport? Then come over here and check how eurotrashes live. Get a life.
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