Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

As we watch the Obama adminstration having such a hard time reforming the broken health care system in the US, and with our unemployment more than twice what it was in 2008 (and yes, even higher now than in "old Europe"), it was refreshing to read about Europe, where people actually have health care. And a lot more too, as I learned by reading this wonderful book. I had heard previously about how much support families and workers have in Europe, but I had no idea about the full extent of it -- more generous retirement pension, affordable housing, paid leave after having a child, child care, more vacations and holidays and much more. Some countries even give you money right before you go on vacation! Incredible. Talk about "family values": Europe does far more to support their families than the US ever thought of doing.

As the book points out, the US has nearly 14 percent of Americans in poverty (compared to 6% in France and 5% or less in Germany, Belgium and Sweden), 20% child poverty and 23% elderly poverty (the highest in the developed western world except Russia and Mexico). I can't believe we Americans are so ignorant about the rest of the world, and how much we have fallen behind a place like Europe. And yet, as the book shows, several of the "myths" we learn about Europe as conventional wisdom are untrue. Their businesses are profitable and competitive, they have more Fortune 500 companies than the US and China COMBINED. But they also have more small businesses than the US that create 2/3 of the jobs there, while small businesses in US only create about half the jobs in our country. Overturning the stereotypes, that's what this book does. It really opened my eyes.

Europe's economy is at least as strong as "let's cause a global collapse" America's economy, and yet it also is better at distributing that wealth to its people. The author, Steven Hill, calls that "social capitalism" as opposed to US-style "Wall Street capitalism". And they also have figured out how to do that in a more environmentally sustainable way. Europe's "economic footprint" is HALF that of the US, their carbon emissions is HALF that of the US, and their energy use is HALF that of the US -- even though they have a standard of living that is at least as good as ours, and in many ways better.

I don't know how long my fellow Americans are going to keep our collective heads in the sand. It's clear that one of the negative reviewers here, Rene Gerald, hasn't even bothered to actually read the book. He talks about Europe's problems of immigration and declining population (though that's only occuring in a few countries), but Europe's Promise addresses both of those head on over the course of three different chapters. Certainly Europe has some challenges to meet there, but after reading Steven Hill's discussion of those problems, and getting more of the bigger picture, it seems to me that Europe is dealing with them. Though obviously time will tell how all those pressures play out. But the US is certainly no country to be lecturing others about immigration!

In short, I highly recommend this book. It really opened my eyes to both a truer picture of Europe, getting past the myths and stereotypes, as well as a truer picture of my own country, the United States of America, and its relative standing in the world. And it gave me hope that there is an example that we in the US could learn about how a modern society can develop, and take care of its people, and do all that in as environmentally sustainable a way as possible.

Europe's Promise is an interesting comparison of the American and the European ideas vis-à-vis the "Social Contract." That is if you even think there is one any more, or are part of, what was once the social contract between American workers and employers. This idea, of an obligation from employers, the government and individuals to the "whole" is the subject of this book. It delves into why universal health care WORKS in Europe, but why it will not in the US. The answer is simple. In Europe the purpose of health care is to provide CARE for people. In the US the purpose of health care is to make a PROFIT. After all, you don't think the reason the health care INDUSRTY opposes a single payer system is because it won't work- it is because they WONT MAKE AS MUCH MONEY! And for those of you with no exposure to Europe, I have some. But the best example I can give you is that of my neighbor who lives across the street. He was on vacation in Rome. He had a heart attack while in Rome at dinner on night. He was taken to a hospital, had heart surgery, and then recuperated in the hospital before flying home. Cost - Zero. If you get sick in Europe you are taken care of. In Europe EVERYONE has health coverage.

The book rightly points out that what Europeans pay in "taxes" they get back in social benefits. Only a small portion of US citizens get the level of benefits that Europeans get. When you add up the cost of ALL taxes - federal, state, local, municipal, plus the cost for items such as health care, child care, education, what we pay in the US is just as much or more and what we get less, because we live in a "For Profit" society, not in a "for the General Good" society. Europe has no CEO's like that of United Health Group who make $100 million a year. Health care in Europe is non-profit. It is about health - not profit. Does anyone really think the US health firms are about health? If they were, they would be leading the way to provide coverage to all, not fighting every aspect of the current health care reform legislation.

Aside from health care alone, the book compares and contrasts the European way, the European approach, to many social, economic, and diplomatic issues in comparison to the US way. We, the US come up on the short end of the straw every time. And we should. Does anyone (outside of Texas and Wyoming) still think invading Iraq was a good idea? The Europeans, and much as I hate to say so the French, were against if from the start and they were right. European diplomacy has been based upon Joseph Nye's idea of "soft power" while the years 2001 to 2009 saw nothing but US hard power, for better or worse.

As the book points out, what has been called the "ownership society" is really just a euphemism for the "You are on your own" society. One need only look at the state of US today. 10 percent unemployment. If you are unemployed you are on your own. In Europe unemployment benefits and job retraining are much better. US employers actively seek ways to AVOID providing any type of benefits to their workers. While in Europe the types of benefits that our parents or grandparents got from their employers are still normal. Health insurance, vacations, holidays, sick time, pensions. While in the US you are pretty much left to take care of your self "on your own" because you have "freedom of choice." Good luck saving for health care, a vacation, and college for your kids when you are making $10.50 an hour working at Big Mart. Of course you pay lower taxes. But so do the AIG high rollers. And they surely pay lower taxes than you do.

From the Financial Times, February 8, 2010

Review of "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an
Insecure Age" by Steven Hill

Review by Tony Barber

(excerpt)

Steven Hill, director of the political reform programme at the New America
Foundation think-tank, has two purposes in writing this book. One is to set
out the case that Europe's methods of economic management, cradle-to-grave
social support systems, democratic structures, ecological consciousness and
temperate foreign policy are the way forward for the world. The global order
is being remade, he says, and what will emerge on the other side will be a
new world based on the European model. Europe is a beacon for humanity's
future, no less, and it holds the greatest potential for the planet.

Hill's second goal is to show that the US, far from being an example for the
world, is nowadays no model at all. Compared with Europe, he says, the
United States is behind in nearly every socioeconomic category. Its economy
is an obsolete, hyper-militarised model"and, even under Barack Obama, is
mired in an antiquated free market ideology.

US democratic institutions are "unrepresentative, divisive and
disenfranchising", characterised by de facto one-party fiefdoms and 70m
unregistered voters almost one-third of those eligible. The nation wastes
colossal quantities of energy and fails to provide decent healthcare for
millions of uninsured citizens. US foreign policy is trapped in a
Vietnam-era mentality of using military muscle and even invading nations as
a way of dealing with unsavoury elements".

No question, Hill makes you sit up and think. Unlike intellectually lazier
writers, he does not buy the argument that the 21st century belongs
inevitably to China. He is surely right in saying that Europe's prosperous,
peaceful and democratic social market economy looks attractive when
contrasted with the unbalanced, excessively deregulated US model or with
China's politically repressive capitalism, Russia's petrodollar
authoritarianism, Japan's corporate cronyism or conservative Islam. He makes
a perceptive point, too, when he says that American conservatives play up
Europe's difficulties as a way of suppressing discussion of radical change
in the US.Europe, with its affordable universal healthcare, unemployment
benefits, paid holidays and sick leave, childcare, time off for parents
after a birth and inexpensive university fees, has certainly built an
enviable form of social capitalism.

Hill is a lucid and engaging writer, and he recognises that not everything
in Europe smells of roses. For example, Europe faces formidable problems in
its declining birth rates and its reluctance, or inability, to integrate the
millions of immigrants needed to sustain its prosperity in coming decades.
Hill is right: the US model requires modernisation. But when it comes to
welcoming the world's huddled masses, Europeans could learn from their
American cousins.