Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? summary

In general, European citizens pay higher taxes. Americans, on the other hand, can rest easy knowing that the government doesn’t want that large a share of their hard-earned income.

But are higher taxes, in general, such a bad thing?

What’s life like for an average, middle-management European professional? Turns out it’s pretty good, starting with the worker’s commute to the office.

European countries support far more effective and affordable public transportation systems than do US states. Because public transport works so well, European commuters are ten times more likely to use local transit to get to work than US commuters are.

Taking a look at nothing but the numbers and it seems straightforward: The United States is statistically better off than other developed nations, especially those in Europe.

But when you take a closer look at American GDP figures, for example, you’ll find that some factors bloat oft-cited prosperity statistics.

“Rhineland capitalism,” or social capitalism, has long been regarded as opposing the tenets of American capitalism. To understand what makes Germany’s social democratic system and economy different from others, let’s first compare Germany with another European country, France.

When French workers are dissatisfied, powerful workers’ unions encourage members to take to the streets, often resulting in violence. Some actions have even led to employees imprisoning their bosses in the office when demands aren’t met.

Many politicians in the United States sniff at Germany’s economic system, disdainful of its “socialist” roots. Yet the seeds of social democracy in Germany were planted by the Allies after World War II.

At the end of the war, the people responsible for planning a sustainable economic future for the new West Germany were decidedly pro-labor. Many were either socialists from the British Labour Party or New Dealers, Americans who advocated liberal social ideas. Meanwhile, US Generals also welcomed the idea of workers having a say in how the country was rebuilt. This principle has remained at the core of German business practices, even today.

As media outlets go out of business in the United States, printed media continues to thrive in Europe, as any German train full of reading commuters will demonstrate. German citizens still consume a large percentage of daily news and current affairs from newspapers or magazines.

Frankfurt, one of Europe’s major cities for business, is located just a few hours by train from other financial centers such as Berlin, Paris or Amsterdam. Many professionals travel between these cities daily, the perfect opportunity to read a newspaper cover to cover.

The German economy today is robust. But in the late 1990s, the picture was very different.

At the time, the economy seemed close to collapse, with the reunification of East Germany and West Germany adding to the enormity of the crisis.

The dark cloud of the 2007-2009 financial crisis still looms over North America, as the economy continues to struggle with enormous levels of debt.

Like the United States, Germany holds a large external debt; yet the country is technically debt-free. How? Germany is a net creditor, meaning its external assets are large enough to balance out its external liabilities.