Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
much in Europe. Europeans expect
the government to care for the needy
and fund the arts, youth groups, and
foreign study opportunities. Europe's
tax-funded alternative to charity auc-
tions, pledge drives, and school car
washes works for them.
In our system, the thinking is
that, after we all get wealthy, we'll be
sure to make charitable contributions
to the places where the fabric of our
society is frayed. But Europe is more
socialistic. Rather than a thousand
points of light emanating from gener-
ous community members who care,
Europeans prefer one compassion-
ate, well-organized searchlight from
their entire society as orchestrated
by elected oi cials. While we care individually, they care collectively. What's
perceived as good for the fabric of their community (such as having bike
lanes, heroin maintenance clinics, public broadcasting, after-school childcare
for working parents, paid maternity and paternity leave, and freeway art)
trumps business interests.
h is represents another major philosophical dif erence. In America we
believe in government by and for the people through the corporations that
we own. We want to have a good business environment so we can all share
in the al uence. I was raised with the business mantra, “What's good for GM
is good for America.”
Europeans strive for government by the people and for the people some-
times
regardless
of the interests of their corporations. Consequently, Europe
is willing to make laws that are (at least in the narrow view) bad for business.
While in Europe, the notion of paying for a car's disposal when you i rst buy
the car makes sense, it would be dismissed in the US as bad for the economy.
Because carbon taxes would be considered good for the environment but bad
for business, I expect to see them in Europe before the US.
Even as Europeans accept this system, they love to complain about the
heavy-handedness of big government. Cumbersome bureaucracy creeps into
In Stockholm, like elsewhere in humanistic
Scandinavia, the city hall's bell tower rather
than a church spire marks the center of
town.
