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Do Eurpoeans Look up to America

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hey americans, enjoy your cheeseburgers, religious nuts and GWB-like people.

Serious answer:
- the daily waste of resources is viewed as bad
- fatties, mcdonalds
- hurr durr no culture
- hurr durr war mongers
- poor people living in trailer parks or ghettos, or on the street
- criminality
- people crazy about guns and obsessed with home defense and violent culture (wrestling, boxe, and taking your children to a weapon fair and let them shoot)
- crazy religiousity in wooden village churches (proselitism and fear of hell is viewed really poorly, nobody cares or talks about hell and converting other people)

what is viewed as nice:
- california
- miami
- going to new york
- people can make big amounts money and walk up the corporate ladder starting from nowhere, there are huge corporations where you can make lots of money
- with enough money you can have a big house and 3 cars with dedicated parking spots. In europe to do that you need way more money.

yeah it's mostly about the money (and what you can buy with it).
Also college and high school life as portrayed by your telefilms. Here there aren't that many activities (there are few school sports teams), and there's no such thing as on campus accomodation.
In reality I know that schooling in USA means drowning in debt, maybe going to a shitty community college, being excluded from elitaristic private schools, lots of tests that don't value the people. This unless you're really smart.
Here taking loans is not normal, most of my classmates if they get a night job can afford school without living in debt. Parents also get monthly paychecks from the state for children.

Maybe the difference is that those who don't want to get in a university, they don't go to high school in the first places. There are various professonal schools, or they do an apprenticeship and learn a trade, like metalmechanic, builder, electrician, electronic etc.
That way they start earning enough money to live with their parents without burdening them right away.
 
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I think most people who know me know that I am a an unabashed Europhile. I lived in Germany as a child, have been traveling to Europe on almost a yearly basis since 1995, and I now work for a foreign (Europe-based) government entity. I would like to live in Europe again sometime in the future. Heck, I just got back from a Paris vacation two weeks ago!

With the exception of our space, population density, and certain natural beauty (that is in some cases fading away), I think there is little that modern Europeans envy about the United States. Well, let me take that back. In Germany, Chancellor Merkel recently said that "multiculturalism is dead" in her country. I think certain groups in Europe feel that "integration" is not really working there, whereas I think we have a much better track record of this in the United States on the whole, whether we like it or not. This may be one thing that they envy. To an extent they also envy the influence that the US has in the world, especially through the pervasiveness of the English language itself.


Otherwise, I think the European lifestyle to be vastly superior to ours:


  • While I don't appreciate their level of personal income taxation, I do appreciate the amount of "ROI" northern Europeans get per tax dollar than we do in terms of public services, healthcare, etc. I think northern European countries have more efficient governments in general than we do.

(Side note: The director of my office was recently telling me that his wife's Leukemia treatments cost some $14,000/treatment here in the US but would only cost some $1600/treatment in Europe.)


  • I would say transparency of government, especially in Germany, is vastly superior to ours.

  • I kind of like coalition governments that necessitate multiple political parties. Much better than only having two "choices" here in the US.

  • I prefer the "work to live" European attitude over the "live to work" attitude we have in the US. In conjunction with this, I love the 6+ weeks of yearly vacation that people get in many parts of Europe. Remember, this is just vacation, not sick leave, emergency leave, maternity leave, etc. They have very generous benefits in those cases as well.

  • I love the "dual-track" education system that some European countries have. In Germany this helps ensure a strong manufacturing base and a country where domestic manufacturing is protected to a large extent. Don't forget that their economy is booming and their unemployment rate is falling. Universities are also still accessible and some countries are completely free of tuition costs.

  • I personally prefer tightly-packed cities, surrounded by hundreds of years of culture where people mostly walk, bike, or ride public transport and where people buy fresh, seasonal produce directly from farmers on the market square. I would take this over having to drive to my nearest "big-box" store where everything is sourced from China or elsewhere.

  • I love the emphasis on foreign language education. In Germany, kids start learning English at around third grade. This is then augmented by at least one or two additional languages before graduation. My boss is conversationally capable in some 12 languages.

  • I do love how informed the average European is compared to the average ignorant American. In most European countries, if you drive 500 miles in any direction, you will arrive in a different country with a different culture and language. You have no choice but to be informed about the world and everything from their education and news programs reflects this. Turn on any German radio broadcast at the top of the hour and much of the news is about the rest of the world. The German mentality towards vacation also emphasizes learning about the world. Germans are always on vacation, all around the world. If you ever hear of a plane crash or similar disaster, listen to the manifest of casualties by nationality. Germans are always there!

  • Protection of culture. We Americans are too quick to bulldoze the past to build something quick, new, and (likely) cheap. In Europe, there is a pleasant protection of the past in regards to architecture, customs, food, etc. This is why you can still buy amazing bread, meats, and cheeses on just about any street corner in Europe whereas in the US we have to be content with white sponge bread and orange squares of so-called cheese. Europeans laugh at that crap! Same goes for the history and variety of beer and wine.

  • The Environment: Europeans have a much better track record of enabling renewable energy sources to cut down CO2 emissions. We are just getting to a point here in the US where Germany was 20-30 years ago. Europeans also tend to waste FAR less than Americans.

  • Dogs: Dogs can usually are welcome anywhere, on trains, in restaurants, in stores, in malls, etc. And I have never seen a dog bite someone or otherwise behave inappropriately.

  • Cars: From VW, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, Bugatti, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Lamborghini, etc. they know how to build them and make them look gorgeous, inside and out.

  • Sex: Far more open and far more safe. Look at the STD and pregnancy rates. They are lower in Europe. Kids are informed at an early age about everything from A to Z. Birth control pills and condoms are readily available. Though this may be to their detriment as most European countries have very low birth rates.
 
One of the main issues is many Americans are drowning in debt due to student loans while most Euro countries + Canada subsidize it. Yes, they pay more taxes but in the long run they aren't 50-150K in debt for the rest of their lives.

Food, EU won't accept the GMO bullsht that we are eating here so they enjoy a higher quality overall.

Probably the two most glaring differences aside from healthcare.

The U.S., better specialized healthcare. Better sports.
 
Colt45 said:
Yet Germany manages to out export the entire US...

I suppose Russia must be even better than the US. To put it into perspective, Siberia is 25x the size of Texas.
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I have no idea what point you're trying to make. I brought up the relative size to show that it's much more difficult for the average American to travel to other countries.
 
Broheim said:
erm, we have plenty of luxuries over here...

tell me one thing the common american has that I dont
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a higher disposable income.

i gotta say tho, that the stereotype that the euros are more aware because they know about other countries within europe is pretty bullshit. a german might know about the swiss and the french but that'd be like saying i'm so awesome cause i know about new yorkers and virginians.

all in all, we stumbled a bit recently so every fuck out there wants to get their cheap shots. whatever, haters gonna hate.
 
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deanx0r said:
Not only that, but the English have the reputation of fucking around with personal freedoms. Look at at what they did to the Gaels or the Irish under the penal laws. From the moment the English took their right to bear arms for the greater good of public safety, they started to strip away so many freedoms to the point where US slaves 'enjoyed' more freedoms than the Irish.
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umm.. I wasn't alive hundreds of years ago, I couldn't care less. Besides, please explain the treatment of the native Americans, and killing out the buffalo as a mode of genocide. 😀

As for squatters (as another person said) well this happens in all countries, I don't get the point. I cannot see how, apart from perhaps gun ownership (and even then this differs from state to state) the USA is freer than Europe.

Is there less discrimination in the US? No. All developed countries these days have anti-discrimination laws? More freedom of expression? No. More of a likelihood of being detained without cause? No.
 
Murloc said:
hey americans, enjoy your cheeseburgers, religious nuts and GWB-like people.

Serious answer:
- the daily waste of resources is viewed as bad
- fatties, mcdonalds
- hurr durr no culture
- hurr durr war mongers
- poor people living in trailer parks or ghettos, or on the street
- criminality
- people crazy about guns and obsessed with home defense and violent culture (wrestling, boxe, and taking your children to a weapon fair and let them shoot)
- crazy religiousity in wooden village churches (proselitism and fear of hell is viewed really poorly, nobody cares or talks about hell and converting other people)
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This is exactly what people who only know the USA from television would think. It's very far from reality.
 
This is the US.

The US (in respect to the rest of the countries in Europe) is like the youngest sibling of a large family who was a constant pain in the ass when really young but grows up to be rich and famous after adulthood. Now the rest of the countries in EU will condescendingly pat the US on the back for being so rich and successful as they go their mid-life crises; America in the meantime is recklessly spending money, banging broads and getting into fights.

Accurate depiction, no?
 
mammador said:
Besides, please explain the treatment of the native Americans, and killing out the buffalo as a mode of genocide. 😀
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I see your treatment of the indians and buffalo and raise you:
The Boers
The Indians
The Native Americans (The British had a large hand in that as well)
The Black War
Ireland
 
DougK62 said:
This is exactly what people who only know the USA from television would think. It's very far from reality.
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When I did my homestay in Austria they asked me how many times a day I ate at McDonald's. They were shocked when I told them maybe once every couple of months and then thought I just wasn't a typical American
 
zinfamous said:
wait, what is this?

someone is trying to compare Texas to Germany in terms of economy?

or in terms of size?

OH texAS! always compensating for supreme lack, of---

that is what we know them for...

and I dislike any pro-soviet ommie as much as the next guy, but...belive me--once we start letting TEXAS speak for us in the USA, we have already lost the moral battle. it is all over.


just to let you guys know: TEXAS /= USA. they want to SECEDE. let them. that's what their elected GOVERNOR wants to happen....fucking let them. who gives a shiznit. they matter piddly to a world economy. We would be better off replacing them with PR.


...not like we want to lose a star on the flag, or anything...
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lolwut?

Most of the rest of the US would say the same thing about California.
 
RocksteadyDotNet said:
LOL. This is why people hate America.

American is NOT the envy of the world. People from Germany, France, England etc, fucking love their countries, and don't think they should be more like America.

Money isn't everything. Europe is an old place, with massive amounts of culture and history. To many Europeans, America is a cultral wasteland and not a place to be envied.

America is great, but so are a bunch of other counties.
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I agree with the entirety of this post.
 
i think ultimately both europe and usa look up/down on each other depending on what is being talked about. the whole usa/my country is better than everyone mentality is retarded
 
Gintaras said:
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the "fat americans" charge always makes me roll my eyes a little, when the difference between America and countries like England or Germany or Australia is like a couple percentage points.

it's kinda like the smallest kid at fat camp looking down on his bunkmates.
 
loki8481 said:
the "fat americans" charge always makes me roll my eyes a little, when the difference between America and countries like England or Germany or Australia is like a couple percentage points.

it's kinda like the smallest kid at fat camp looking down on his bunkmates.
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I feel the same about "brits have bad teeth" particularly given that the people who make that statement are trying to say "English people have bad teeth" which is no more true.
 
MotionMan said:
Yet we can't keep them from moving here in droves.

😉

MotionMan
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I have some friends who just moved back to Switzerland after living here for 4 years...and one of them is an American citizen who was born here. You want to hear someone rant about this country, talk to her.

BTW-I have quite a few friends who are from Europe. They are citizens (many have dual citizenship in fact) and, while they love this country, there are many things they despise about it too...mainly the politics of christian conservative middle america where the stupid reign supreme.
 
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