WITHOUT A STRUGGLE:

Exuberant America (Thomas Reeves, February 12, 2006, History News Network)

Enjoying unprecedented opportunities for economic and social mobility, citizens of the United States have gone about the task of securing a better and freer life for themselves with an exuberance that has often irritated Europeans, especially on the Left. The attacks on the “cowboys” and the capitalists have escalated in recent years not only due to the demise of the Cold War, which ostensibly frees Europeans from the protection of American armed forces, but also with the growing disparity between American and European prosperity. The United States has moved far ahead of every European country in every significant economic category. As Olaf Gersemann recently pointed out, “Adjusted for differences in price levels, per capita income in the United States now exceeds France by close to 40 percent. Germany and Italy lag even further behind.” If labor productivity continues on its recent path, Americans will double their per capita income by 2026, while Germans will increase theirs by only 44%.

Big government, high taxes (Germany’s government currently taxes away about 44% of the nation’s output), the welfare state, a zero sum mentality that often treats economic competition with disdain, low labor productivity, the failure to develop a dynamic service sector, and a falling birth rate have gravely weakened the future of the European nations. Public confidence has been badly shaken, resulting in what has been called a “crisis of the spirit” among Europeans.

In a Harris poll of 2002-2003, 57% of Americans said they were very satisfied with their life. In France the figure was 14%, in Germany, 17%, and in Italy 16%.

One would hardly expect the terminal to be happy, but if they weren't so enervated by statism and secularism they might at least rage against the dying of the light a little.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 13, 2006 8:21 AM