Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackVoid
As for the US vs. Europe. It seems that in the USA, people have no problem with bailing out failed private companies with taxpayer money. Yet universal health care financing with tax payer money is a bad idea. Strange indeed.
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If you believe this, you haven't been around the US people I generally associate with. I don't like the idea of your universal health (what I call socialized medicine) but I hate the idea of bailing out companies that overpay their CEOs (who have led the failure) and still believing that those same CEOs can now (with our tax paid bailout) lead the company to success. This is socialized business practices, IMO. Although I understand the rationale of "saving the company", I deplore the idea of believing the failed leadership can miraculously lead to success. (Recall that the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same thing but expecting different results.)
The main topic of this thread (US vs EU culture differences), again IMO, comes down to general tendencies - the EU seems to prefer security over potential while the US seems to prefer potential over security. The same general tendencies occur with people who'd rather work in a regularly paid 40 hour week vs a commissioned sales job. Before anyone gets upset with this, these are meant to generalities - there are individuals in both cultures that are opposite these generalities. I'm one of them since I prefer security. Having said that, I do value to possibility of myself or any of my family being in the other category.
It should be obvious that when you prefer potential, there will be a larger discrepancy between the rich & poor. Just as there is potential for wealth (i.e. success) there is also potential for poverty (i.e. failure). I prefer to have that choice, even though I have chosen security, rather than having my government mandating that security be my choice regardless of my desires. The potential to fail is, IMO, just as much of the "American dream" as the potential to succeed.
And as I typically say, this is just one man's opinion.