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America's Failed Model for the World
Europeans keep asking me, has America lost its mind? From healthcare to its economy, the US is looking merely average
Europeans are shaking their heads over their American friends again. Whether talking to people in the street, in the cafés or to journalists or political leaders, everyone here asks me the same question: Has America lost its mind? Town halls filled with angry citizens, shouting at their elected leaders, some of them armed with guns and threatening signs? Besides the media spectacle of these neo-1776 revolutionaries, what is doubly perplexing to Europeans is the focus of the protests: healthcare.
What's strange to a European is that everyone here already has healthcare. The place that Donald Rumsdfeld once sneeringly called "old Europe" long ago solved this dilemma, producing quality healthcare for a fraction of the price that Americans pay. Many Europeans are astonished when they find out that 47 million Americans - larger than the populations of most European nations - don't have any healthcare at all except a hospital emergency room.
Contrary to stereotype, most of Europe doesn't use single payer, with France, Germany and others having evolved a "third way" that combines individual choice with private, nonprofit insurance companies and Medicare-like cost controls. Even countries like Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia, with per capita incomes only a fraction of that in the United States, have healthcare for all their people. Europeans simply don't understand how a wealthy United States could remain the last advanced nation that does not have universal healthcare.
Lounging one evening in one of Budapest's elegant thermal baths larger than an Olympic swimming pool, with Europeans of all ages and nationalities soaking their limbs in relaxed leisure, I was treated to a dose of the common wisdom that is taking hold here. Introducing myself as an American evinced a swift reaction from one sweating sauna companion:
"I don't understand you Americans. You blow billions on a useless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and billions more to bail out banks that nearly bankrupted the world economy, but you don't ensure healthcare for your own people. Even Obama can't make a difference. It's as if your democracy doesn't work anymore."
He was Austrian but spoke in a near-perfect English that was as good grammatically as that spoken by some of my relatives.
And his reaction was typical. As Europeans watch the United States flailing about over something as basic as healthcare, they are reminded once again of the impotent US response following Hurricane Katrina. TV images of stranded, poor, black people in New Orleans have been melded to those of this new healthcare insurgency with pitch forks, leaving an indelible impression. The last remaining superpower is not looking so super anymore, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, the economy - not anywhere.
The global economic collapse, largely blamed on out-of-control Wall Street capitalism, is stinging here as well, though in most regions Europe has not suffered as much as America has. In my informal polling of small business and shop owners, they said the downtown had hurt, but only a little bit. Since the crisis, Europe has employed clever strategies - some of them since copied by the Obama administration, such as the popular "cash for clunkers" auto rebate programme - that have prevented it from suffering the doubling of unemployment that the US is enduring.
Indeed, Europe, once looked down upon by American pundits as the land of double-digit unemployment, currently has lower unemployment than the United States. Contrary to Europe's reputation as having a sick, sclerotic economy, its per capita economic growth rate actually was slightly higher than America's in the 10 years leading up to the economic crisis.
Still, a number of people fear that the worst is yet to come. And so Europeans appear both angry and perplexed by America's deregulated capitalism run amok, which has further served to undermine the American brand. As one Slovenian acquaintance, a representative of a consortium of small businesses said to me: "The US used to lecture us in Europe about just about everything, but what does America have to teach now? Maybe America should learn something from Europe."
Indeed, with Germany and France becoming the first major western economies to emerge from recession into positive growth, perhaps the US should learn something from our transatlantic cousins. But what might we learn?
Here's a clue, say some Europeans. German chancellor Angela Merkel once was asked by then-British prime minister Tony Blair what the secret was of her country's economic success, which includes being the world's largest exporter nation and running substantial trade surpluses. She famously replied: "Mr Blair, we still make things."
Werner Abelshauser, an economic historian at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, says the European way of running the economy "is fundamentally about firms that emphasise high-quality products and long-term relationships between suppliers and customers". Company managers set long-term policies, while market pressures for short-term profits are held in check. Gunter Verheugen, vice-president of the European Commission, echoed the virtues of Europe's strong, competitive industrial base, succinctly stating Europe's recipe for success: "Don't try to be cheaper. Try to be better."
But in the United States, for decades under the sway of the Reagan revolution's economic philosophy, which favoured corporate finance over manufacturing, the economy has seen a stark decline in manufacturing. Since the second world war, the financial sector in the United States has tripled in size as a percentage of the overall economy and of corporate profits. That increase accelerated during the eight years of the Bush administration, even as the US lost 5.5 million manufacturing jobs.
European capitalism for the most part didn't succumb to the financialisation that swept the United States in the 1980s, and which paved the way for the speculative bubbles that have now caused economic collapses in both 2001 and in 2008 (with notable exceptions in Britain, Spain and Ireland, similarly plagued by a collapsed housing bubble).
So from the other side of the pond, the city on the hill is looking pretty average these days. America is still a leader, but not the leader. That's a post-post-cold war concept that the world is still getting used to, and that Americans don't want to admit. But the evidence is everywhere, and especially obvious when you step outside the American bubble.
As one Viennese politician told me: "If the American model no longer is the blueprint for the world, what comes next?" Some Europeans think they have the answer, and much of the world is paying attention, even if most Americans still are not.
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36 Comments so far
Show AllThe last remaining superpower is not looking so super anymore, whether in Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, the economy - not anywhere.
It's called unstoppable decline and its greatest allies are laziness and downright stupidity. At that, we excel.
Mordechai, you forgot to mention GREED. GREED is destroying everything we have. I would also like to mention COMPASSION. There is no COMPASSION or any interest in helping the people in American who are suffering, becuase there is no PROFIT in it.
Nothing has changed or ever will change until there is a dramatic re-design of our current way of governing and doing business. The problem is Americans are a bunch of spoiled rotten brats. We have experienced nothing of the hardships the Europeans have. They are light years ahead of us.
stimpy: I think you make a good point -- there is NO PROFIT in sympathy, empathy and compassion.
And, it serves the corporations that we are fragmented and separated as individuals, who in order to make a living are forced to claw our way to the top in order to simply survive. These are the people who are rewarded in our society. To hell with the rest of us who don't see life as a battleground based on greed.
As Senator Durbin told us earlier this year: "Wall Street owns Washington DC".
Enough lawmakers are in hock to Wall Street (banks and insurance companies) to assure that all legislation benefits Wall Street at the expense of US taxpayers...and beyond.
Until the US electorate wakes up to this fact and quits re-electing crooked Congressional Representatives and Senators just because they bring pork to their constituents, and the US electorate quits voting for eloquent but crooked presidential candidates, we will see more of the same.
Progressives and the right wingnuts that showed up in DC this week are equally appalled at the toxic brew that Obama and Congress (which is controlled by the Democratic Party)are shoving down our throats in the name of "health care reform".
"I don't understand you Americans. You blow billions on a useless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and billions more to bail out banks that nearly bankrupted the world economy, but you don't ensure healthcare for your own people. Even Obama can't make a difference. It's as if your democracy doesn't work anymore."
That's because it doesn't. The political system is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the corporations. Voting accomplishes nothing because the choices offered are pre-selected by the corporations and their media organs. As long as the government can be bought and sold and candidates marketed like breakfast cereal, democracy can't function.
The REAL substantive difference between Europe and the USA is in the Citizenry themselves. Sarkozy came in as a person who advocated many of the same policies of the USA when it came to reforming the economy.
He already backpedals trying to develop a more encompassing system.
This is due to the Strikes and Protests of the French Citizens. The sit ins. The occupation of factories.
That said there a chicken egg going on here as well. Due to generous Social Programs the people of France can AFFORD to be more politically active. In the USA if you do not buy into the system you end up homeless and on the streets. There little in the way of worker protections.
GwNorth: Good post, and I agree! As soon as the French leaders pass legisation that is anti-citizen, the people hit the streets, and they don't go home until the law is repealed.
They are not docile! They make noise, and they mean business!!
I also agree that the citizens of France can afford to be more politically active.
exactly. of course it doesn't mean the citizens - for whatever ethical and just causes they stand and defend for will necessarily win all those-- BUT they DO show their action, their presence, their involvement and show their government and leaders "YOU ARE MERELY BEING TOLERATED"...
remember 2 years ago - when Sarkozy - considered then one of the more "conservative" or "rightwing" leaders in europe? and trying to copy the US model - tried to CHARGE college students a "small registration fee" for college or university?
boy -- did he get a REAL ass-kicking - and folded his USA-style "justication" of "we have a deficit, we don't have money" etc....
and was simply told - forthwith :
it's YOUR problem -- to ensure that students DON"T spend one franc EVEN for college registration!
and that was IT!
try that in the USA.........
"Even countries like Croatia, Hungary and Slovenia, with per capita incomes only a fraction of that in the United States, have healthcare for all their people."
yeah but they probably had to "start over from scratch" right? And besides, their solutions must not be "distinctly American".
"The US used to lecture us in Europe about just about everything, but what does America have to teach now? Maybe America should learn something from Europe."
As an ex-teacher disgusted with demands to perpetuate the myth of America's 'greatness' from genocidal (sprung out of European mercantile Calvinism, by the way) 'Manifest Destiny' to CIA-backed coups and perpetual wars to feed ravenous corporate 'persons', I will say in our defense that we are too shocked and awed, too numbed and anesthetized to even know what it is we're learning, let alone modeling, as the volume of violence, fear and avarice as entertainment keeps ratcheting ever upward as our economy circles the drain ever downward (for those of use who haven't the heart- or lack thereof, anyway, to engage full-throttle in the Who-Wants-To-Be-A-Millionaire game of full buy-in to this 'end of history' crap) I can't speak for the Free Market True Believers who are like aliens from another planet to me. Pitiable but pitiless and domineering aliens.
The complexity here is mindblowing. Corrupt power isn't unique to these shores. Neither is stupidity, integrity, laziness, initiative, delusion, humility, arrogance or brilliance, though we do have an overdeveloped hype-machine operating here since image-management has largely replaced authentic moral fortitude thanks to the virtual worlds we think we live in.- We are in this TOGETHER, friend. Human beings struggle to be humane and decent all over this globe. There are 'Americans' aplenty who admit and agonize over and even sometimes get through another day helping each other despite their individual and collective failings. If you're going to hold up Europe as a superior model, the devil (or salvation) is in the details..... 'Try to be better (as opposed to just cheaper)' is a great line, but a tad simplistic and smug sounding when looking at this crazy scene.... a line that would merit more if it considered the fascistic on-the-ground realities of daily life in post-Bushlandia. What DOES come next is the million dollar question, alright.
"Pitiable but pitiless and domineering aliens."
C'est vrai. Beaucoup vrai.
well spoken...things are changing everywhere, and not for the better...as to what comes next: the only viable futures must contain a surviving ecosystem...if the living world dies, nothing else matters much...
current human behaviors must turn away from industrial and chemical alteration of the living world, fueled by the notion of 'ownership' of pieces of the planet, and turn toward reverence for all forms of life, and the vital interconnectedness shared...this, accompanied by the regenerating of disappearing vegetation and wildlife, would be fundamental...most of what we hold to be modern life would be eliminated, the rest shrunk, and made largely individual and physical, again...
the sadness lies in the strength of the current system to foster adherence...even if we determine cell use kills bees, for example, who stops the cell companies from putting up towers? who argues for the bees if people don't want to stop using the cells? who tells the general citizenry that they can't have both, and that bees are more important? where are the adults in our world, wise enough to see beyond the hedonistic requirements of the current moment?
I see it as moral decline. Not the "Christian" variety, but the loss of simple values like compassion, a desire for justice, generosity and, perhaps most basically. an adherence to the principle that the strong protect the weak, not exploit them.
Here in the US, might makes right thinking dominates. The ends justify the means. More and more, rather than caring for the weak, they're spit on and exploited. Consider the treatment of immigrants both "legal" and "illegal", the treatment of prisoners, the treatment of blacks, the treatment of Moslems.
The US is the only country in the world that imprisons children for life without possibility of parole. We're virtually alone in not signing an international treaty on the rights of children. Here in the US, the highest poverty rate is among children. Even as the US lavishes trillions on the world's most expensive military, it's cutting school and other programs for children.
Frankly, I'm beyond disgusted with this country. I think it's damned. I think it's destined to fail, and my only hope is that it won't pull down the rest of our species with it.
This country is a steaming pile of dogshit. There is very little to be proud of if you are an Amerikan.
EXCEPT if you are an american that SEES and admits its great flaws. such americans are STILL what they can be proud of, it is it even a matter of "pride".......because they show they are aware, conscientious, and try to maintain their ethical being.
I salute such americans...DESPITE all the great flaws and evils done in their name.
americans like you and others are STILL the hope - no matter how dim - for what is good in america.
Everything you say is exactly correct and I fear the last line is becoming a reality: we are pulling down the rest of our species.
as even the "arch conservative" - even distastefully "nativist" america (as if NATIVE means WHITE ordered, conveniently forgetting who the europeans committed genocide against) - Patrick Buchanan has admitted one truth:
"WE AMERICANS HAVE MANY FINE QUALITIES.........SEEING OURSELVES AS OTHERS SEE US ...IS *NOT* ONE OF THEM".
There is a silver lining in every cloud. As long as Americans remain as dumb as they are, they are guaranteeing that the rest of the world will leave this evil empire behind and ultimately a second-rate country and economy. Maybe the rest of humankind can continue to progress with the American model no longer a model.
The US has a terminal case of the social disease, the evil, that is corporatism. Corporatism squeezes out every last drop of humanity, compassion, and empathy from the population as it develops and nurtures unsustainable feedback loops in shaping and molding that population into a society comprised mostly of psychopathic fiends.
Europe has already proved and the US is now proving that no people and no nation/region should be "a model for the rest of the world."
Let us celebrate and enjoy the diversity of humanity in these final days of the apocalypse. And let us care for one another on the way down, fighting every inch of the way to make things as good as they can be, if we have failed to make them better.
Dafoe
America is not interested in curing itself, it still thinks in terms of "enlightened" self interest when it is self interest that has governed and allowed corporate socialism to rule. The repugnants brought all this along faster and America cheered, God forbid this country elected George W Bush twice, a semi literate puppet on a string. This country has values so shallow their depth are measured in angstroms . Selfishness and greed rate high as does property with a Georgian(the fellah you had a revolt with) criminal code and a congress that cares more about corporate welfare than its citizens welfare what more can you ask for.
The Vermont secessionist are right , get out. This country has no center anymore and no one speaks for the nation, with 50 tinpot little "dictatorships" masquerading as states and two party politics its down the slippery slope to join the has beens. This nation is scared witless by Cuba, still and Venezuela is giving this nation heartburn because they won't fall in line. It won't be long before the army steps in to bring in peace order and good government, its that or a Presdent declaring a national emergency from which there is no exit, there will not be any revolution.!!!
in a way - it seems merica can be summed up this way also:
it is a country or "groups" of people - who , in their disparate self-interests that tend to grow or evolve into simply selfISHNESS , are "tied" together by the mythical ideas of "america" and of course its PRESUMED connotation:
"GREATEST, UNMATCHED GOODNESS"...
and through this is a nation that can not help but define itself as the "CURE" for the world, such that ANYTHING that is "NOT AMERICAN" is , one way or another, an ILLNESS ...a DISEASE..
even if - as time has shown and time keeps showing , if there is ONE great disease in the world - IT IS AMERICA.
and if anything it is the reverse...it is the world that has to be cured OF america.
i recently discussed the subject with some americans on the question -- they asked - as often used by americans:
"if we are so bad -- then why are so many people coming to america ?"
and I told them:
'you are missing one important matter: you THINK , because of all the mythical claims you have grown up with about the GOODNESS of america that outweighs what you mostly DON"T realize or admit are the HORRORS caused by america, which you wish to diminish in contrast to what you think are goodness...you think that people go to america MAINLY because of the claimed "freedoms".....but in reality - freedom is relative. different cultures have different ideas of that...and most people come to america for more pragmatic and realistic reasons. they go for ECONOMIC reasons...
and they mostly leave their beloved countries largely BECAUSE of the consequences of America's OWN meddling in the affairs and economies of their countries that suppressed THEIR economies...where ELSE do they go? especially south americans? NORTH or whereever they come from - they go to america......you ADVERTISED yourselves through your own bragging and impositions on other cultures and countries which resulted in DISRUPTIONS and suppressions of what might have been their NATURAL independent destinies of prosperity as is the right of all people and cultures if they are respected for their uniqueness...but america used its power to subject them and their nations to ENSLAVEMENT to your own interests.....that is a consequence of america's OWN policies and behavior".
The oft-mentioned "stupidity" alluded to in the posts below merits some reflection. How did we get so dumb? [consider the "tea-baggers", dressed as tories... yeah, colonials ALL dressed like that... with misspelled, ungrammatical, signs, wearing guns and yelling "keep your gummint hands off my Medicare"] You might consider the chemical/cultural death-by-a-thousand-cuts Americans are subject to. Our teeth are stuffed with mercury fillings that demonstrably leak [remember the "Mad Hatter"?], there's lead in the air and food, fluoride ( a toxin that accumulates in the frontal lobe and makes you docile) in the water and in anti-depressants, and slew of chemicals in your food which is already nutritionless due to factory farming, Aspertame (composed of various toxic chemicals, rammed thru the FDA by a company headed by Donald Rumsfeld), television with its hypnotic flash rate, selling a shallow, mean-spirited, narcissistic culture, and a corporate owned media, manipulating and scaring a population, ill-equipped to think critically by an enervated "education" system that peddles a Baudelerized fairy tale in place of history. No single cause, but, taken together...
rudy: that is a thoughtful and insightful peice you offer
to which i would just add the fact that our political system, and who could argue this, has been taken over by the corporations. period - end of story
from that fact flows all your comments, which are right on
the education system is overrun as well - american science now lags the world - there are no independent scientists anymore - they can't get funding for anyhting other than nwo agenda items - like flouride in the water, factory farmong, gmo's etc
the health care debate is a great example - a single payer system is the ONLY one we chould be looking into - a government run system for everyone. at the outset of the debate the hmo's, pharma and insurance corporations all expressed panic at the idea of competing with the government programs
obama should have said - yeh that's right - your death profits are exactly what we want to take out of the system - it was the sole purpose of the exercise
instead he has caved in to their demands and now offers no single payer but rather a guarantee that not only protects these blood stained corporate profits but in fact enhances them and essentially puts these huge, rich corporations on welfare with a guaranteed annual income, thank you mr taxpayer
now we have wall street already on welfare and still gaming it up like drunk whores, their profits at an all time high and the bonus money flowing like cheap wine
obama intends to do the same for the health care industry
its called corporatism - mussolini coined the term fascism to describe a corporate state
so we are by definition a fascist country now
not exactly what we had in mind
in order to bring this toxic legislation into law the industries involved have "invested" tens of millions of dollars in the congressmen drafting the new laws. max baucus has taken around 8 million dollars - and for that he has sold his country down the river. a traitor plain and simple. looks like money well spent from corporations' part - they are now droooling over their unexpected windfall and have agreed to spend 150 million dollars to "sell" the new healthcare to the public
obama played his part in two ways: the first part was not sending a plan to the hill, instead allowing the hill to slice and dice the whole concept into guava jelly and the second part was not allowing any single payer groups to have input. that's a traitor right there
it should also be said that it is none of the corporations business what we do with our money in the first place - they are not our partners in life, they are not our friends or anything like that. they are ghouls who make money denying care, delaying care until death, profiting over another's disease
they should be un-included in this process right quick
using their bought and paid for politicians via the corporate media they have, once again, undermined the will of the people, setting american against american, presenting false and empty choices while their boys in congeress kiss their collective asses for their "fundraising" and campaign contributions
that says all we need to say...
rudyspeaks
The truth.
And I agree with you.
You also can read similar laments, mutatis mutandis, in the Hebrew bible, many Roman writers of the ancient world, and in fact sage observations in all places and at all times.
Human beings apparently do not change; but the tools of the powerful do, and the electronic straight-jacket, I would reckon, is here to stay.
Proud to be ignorant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUPMjC9mq5Y
Regarding the last paragraph of the article - As one Viennese politician told me: "If the American model no longer is the blueprint for the world, what comes next?"
Look south to Latin America where countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and others are creating their own model and rejecting the "Washington Consensus" with the IMF & World Bank in favor of aspects of socialism, localism and regionalism. They are also developing relationships with countries outside the region like Venezuela with Russia as they realize the American model is a failure and they don't need or want us. Let's hope they can continue with there reforms without US military intervention trying to get them to give us their resources against their will.
"America is a mistake; a gigantic mistake."
Viennese medical worker Sigmund Freud, following his one and only visit, in 1909.
A questions for any European who may be reading this.
How do European countries with mandated privatized systems like Netherlands, Germany or Switzerland claim to not have any uninsured? With the tough cost controls, the mandatory insurance must be much cheaper. But surely, Europe has at least some poor poeple who don't keep their insurance payments up. How do they access treatment by doctors and hospitals? Are there medical cost assistance programs?
in the end. after all is sorted out --
American will stand ALONE - the nation empire that DRAGGED ON being an empire and tried to keep imposing its will on others -
but in its own ruin - eventually was REJECTED.
that's what history will show. the ABERRATION that "was" america - REJECTED by a wiser, more grown-up world.
it will come.
"I don't understand you Americans. You blow billions on a useless war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and billions more to bail out banks that nearly bankrupted the world economy, but you don't ensure healthcare for your own people. Even Obama can't make a difference. It's as if your democracy doesn't work anymore."
Our democracy hasn't worked for decades. In fact, the Supreme Court will be deciding very soon if they should tell the citizens of the United States that the Constitution no longer applies to them becuase welfare rights of "huge corporations" are more important than those of the citizens of this country - even if the Constitution of the United States never granted them "inalienable rights".
Do you understand now? We are talking about a country run by a bunch of spineless and/or greedy thugs!
Actually, Europeans have been asking this question for at least forty-some years, though I suspect the question has gotten more shrill since 2000.
The US moved under sort of a false halo in much of Europe after 1945 because of the Marshall Plan, in which the US loaned the older imperial powers money to reassemble part of their empires.
While the US surely did this to prevent self-determination in the old colonial lands, people in the old imperial capitals saw this as generosity. It revamped the old idea from the 1700's and 1800's that the United States, as a revolutionary democracy, represented a new and more egalitarian polis.
The people who received that supposed generosity from Americans as adults and bought that idea, often with passionate gratitude, are now growing feeble and dying.
This article serves to illustrate once again the incredible arrogance and denial of that arrogance of Americans. It assumes that America was EVER a desirable role model for the rest of the world. americans are so completely brainwashed into believing they are superior that the rest of the world even believed it. What is so desirable about slavery, or the ethnic cleansing of the indigenous tribes or the raping of the environment or the one party political system or an economic system that requires everyone to go into debt or the most military bases of any country around the world or invading other countries for their resources or, or, or ?
God bless America and NOWHERE ELSE !
Its funny. In the 80s, you could think of a million places in Europe where it would be easy to afford land, especially in France or Italy. No longer. European countries have better public transport, better food, fitter people, longer vacations, fewer laws, and the list goes on. They do have smaller, poorly heated residences, but oh well, that's changed some, too.
What's really ailing America is the ignorant mindset that is a witches brew of arrogance, militarism, exceptionalism, classic stupid country parochialism, and 200 years of racism.
Europe also had arrogance and militarism, but two world wards kind of beat it of them, and losing their dominance was prob the best thing that ever happened to them, and the worst that ever happened to us. In 60 years, we have gone from the richest most powerful nation on earth, to a pitted husk of our former power teetering on an Everest of debt, with a rotting infrastructure, and a military that has been basically emasculated.
While Europe has at least as much background racism, their societies are fairer and more ready to deal with the consequences. There is a lot of similiarity between the US confederate mindset and that of Nazi Germany. These people would rather start a war with the world or the rest of the country than admit that they are insane or need to snap out of their trance. Meanwhile, a rabid capitalist corrupt elite has blown the wealth balance so out of whack that extremism can sink roots. We are in serious trouble, and emigration has some real appeal to it. It's such a tiringly stupid debate to bother with, when there is real life out there to be lived.