Europe Moving Up

While surfing a blog sight, “Liberal Values”, I came across an article saying that conservatives are complaining about the Democrats trying to make the United States look more like Europe. It went on to say “To conservatives, Europe is a mass of socialism as described in an old Ayn Rand novel with economies doomed to forever fall behind the economy of the United States.” (Ron Chusid) The author of the blog then gives an explanation trying to put this complaint by the conservatives to rest. He does this by posting a link to an article in the Times of London saying that the United States is predicted to fall behind Britain for the first time since the 19th Century.

First, this is the first time I have heard of this complaint. Second, I do not think that this will help the conservatives to stop complaining about the Democrats.

Anyhow, the United States have been one of, if not the largest united force in the world for almost a century. While I think it is important to compare things such as living standards and other economic standards to other countries, I think that saying that we should be more like Europe socially is a bit extreme. Yes, there is much to improve in this country, and yes, we can learn from other countries programs. But, the United States has been on top for so long that I do not think that as soon as one country (UK) is predicted to do better than the United States then the government should immediately think that we need to be more like them. Also, what works socially in a small nation might not work in the least for a larger one.