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You asked for it.

This article may be more appropriate for Germany than the US. However, I submit to you that the article misses the most important part and provides a sort of "out of our control" excuse for the decrease in a standard of living.

Here in about 10 minutes, America will officially be 300 million strong. And there are folks that are convinced that there are too many of us using up the worlds resources, yadda yadda yadda. The population of a nation has little to do with its economic wealth. The most important factor is productivity per citizen. On this planet, no nation even comes close to the output of American citizen (person for person that is). Before you argue about it, remember, children in a factory in some third world country are making X amount of shoes per day, while 50 line workers here in a factory can pump out a 100 of automobiles. The comparison is tough to measure apples to apples.

Here is the point. Americans are motivated to work harder and sometimes longer because they are adequately rewarded for their effort. They are also more innovative because they want to be more productive because they are adequately rewarded for their effort. In Europe, where the freedoms they once enjoyed are now stifled by oppressive socialization, high taxes, mandated equal pay, constant leisure and a lack of motivation, citizens do not produce (on average, person for person) like Americans.

What about those wacky Asians you say? Well, the stereo type we have of hard working Japanese we have comes from none other than, our media. Yes, in their largest cities, there are die hard workaholics just as there are here. The Chinese seem to produce a lot, but ironically, they don't produce enough, person for person, to provide for their own citizens. Most of their population produce only enough to survive.

Europeans are comfortable with their status quo. They do not work to hard, they don't expect much in return, and the government takes care of what's left. American's are greedy and able. We'll work harder for things we want (sometimes to the point of diminishing our family values).

The major difference and that which the article failed to mention? American is still a very free country. Our economy is driven by the entrepreneurial spirit of our people. We believe we can get ahead of the Jone's by out working them. So we do. We use the worlds most resources to churn out the worlds most products and drive the worlds economy.

All that said, I believe we are headed in the wrong direction (towards a European model) and need to get back to our roots. We need to considerably downsize our government and continue to leave our economy in the hands or our working citizens.