Quote: (08-14-2016 10:11 AM)Mage Wrote:
Obviously I oversimplified some things to have some brevity.
The point is each country has some good points and bad points, America has many good points, like liberty of speech and bear arms but workaholism is not one of them in my opinion.
European countries, including the Scandinavian countries, once enjoyed superior standards of living (maybe 20 years ago), but in the last decade or so, they all have fallen far behind the US. Now that Europe is collapsing, the downward trend will accelerate. There's been a small, but cumulatively substantial, difference in various measures of growth since the mid-1990s. Western Europe has no poverty like you see in the US, but the median standard of living it lower.
Which model is 'better' is a matter of perspective. As someone who divides their time pretty much evenly between North America, Europe and Asia - the US is a much better place to be an entrepreneur, and its much better to be a worker drone, or unemployed, in Europe. Someone who makes more than $150k a year lives much better in the US than in Germany, Italy or Spain. Asia (or itineracy) is probably the best place to be a business owner.
To someone who loves what they do, or is looking to build up a business - things like the 6 hour work day are not at all desirable. And for the little people, the lazy, or to someone who has no ambition to make a lot of money, labor laws are all godsends. It's all a matter of priorities.
Here is nice video that does a good job talking about how Scandinavia's 'superiority' is now a myth.
https://youtu.be/D0hnA341AWE