Saturday, October 29, 2016

Wealth in the United States and Europe

It seems that more and more Americans are looking up to Europe. They want to take of the social democracy of high taxes and an extensive welfare system that so many European countries are famous for having.

Well I say: Wait a minute! Because social democracy is not a policy of wealth creation and rising standards of living. It is mostly about distribution of wealth that in the process becomes smaller and smaller.

This article should shed some light on the situation. The richest European country, by far, would only be the fifth richest state in the United States. The second richest country would be number 15. The poorest American state even beats countries like Italy, South-Korea, New Zealand, Japan and Spain.

When I tell this to people (here in Denmark), the reply is often great amazement or a blatant refusal or some vague excuse about having a better life. A better life for what? Of course money is not everything but as far as I can see, people want good houses, good food, good clothes and opportunities to treat their family with presents, vacations and nice things. People love their Apple-phone but don't like that Apple generates profit. People enjoy to ride in their affordable, safe, fuel-efficient car filled with nice extras but despise global competition which made their creation possible.

Europe has been lagging behind for many years and is not a model to be followed. Neither is the United States on their path to never-ending wars, welfare expansion and spending of borrowed money. But at least the United States could turn their heads to others for models before its too late.

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