If this blog and the comments posted are representative of Americans in general though, it would seem that the hatred and invective is more widespread on the other side of the Atlantic aimed at us. It could be that the posters on here are extremists, I don’t know.

Of course Europe has some problems, what part of the world doesn’t? But some people over the pond seem to have a very distorted view of the situation here and what life in general is like in Europe. The Islamophobic tendencies of some Americans and the Eurabia nonsense that they come out with just seems so disconnected with the reality of life here that it’s laughable. The sirens of doom who lament the economic collapse of “socialist” Europe don’t seem to realise that life for the vast majority of Europeans is far better than in previous generations, there is no mass migration to the Americas as there was in the period that many of you guys seem to think was Europe’s halcyon days in the 19th and early 20th century. This fact alone must say something, people vote with their feet if life sucks and yet in a world where it is easier than ever to travel, fewer Europeans are interested in leaving for the US, life here can’t be that bad!

Indeed, if you look at GDP per capita statistics, many European countries have actually seen higher growth than the USA on average over the past couple of generations which just goes to show that you can have an economy that taxes more highly to provide public services, protection against poverty and infrastructure investment while still being very competitive internationally. Not that everything is perfect in Europe by any means (or in the US or anywhere else) but I think that some people would do better to actually get off their keyboards and look for themselves what life is like rather than take the polemic of some blogger at face value.

http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/10/theyve-known-it-all-along.html

Some of of course know teh truth behind all of this…

Really?
Heh, I love revisionist history on the fly, what a hoot.
So when was the US formed and when was Europe formed?

Europe couldn’t agree on an agreement amongst themselves, let alone ‘dominate’ the worlds financial markets.

Fine. Go ahead. Dominate.

If you think you can.

Btw, aren’t they the omes who decided to drill offshore? Oh, and do they spend 2% of GDP on the military as required by treaty? Finally, how’s the immigration system there? I suspect you have very tight, strongly-enforced immigration laws, if that 1.6% is right.

It’s amazing how strong a socialist country can be when it’s almost all indigenous peoples. I’m just guessing that’s the case, based on those numbers. Is it? By the way, are you really a socialist country? I bet you fail the test with those numbers.

The military budget of the US is (a bit) less than twice that of the combined budgets of countries in the EU. Off the top of my head only Finland and Sweden are members of the EU and not NATO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_federations_by_military_expenditures . I think the spending of the European countries should be higher btw.

The difference between the average American living in New York and the average American living in – say – Alabama is probably pretty big. Now consider that the differences between people within the EU are (by my guess) most likely even bigger, and probably by alot. Consider France vs. the UK, Denmark vs. Portugal, etc.

The biggest reason why the EU as a whole compares unfavorably against the US economic wise is, that only a few years ago many former communist-block became members. These are much poorer than the average.
When you compare the per capita economy of European countries such as the UK and Denmark with the US. The picture is quite different than when comparing the whole EU with the US.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

I dont know if the average unemployment of people in the EU is 12%, but i think its lower (more like 7~9%). In Denmark where i live it’s 1.6% however. Oh, and did you know that the surplus on state budget here is around $15 bil? That would be something like $850 bil. scaled to a country the size of the US. Not bad for a “socialist” country, huh?

No, actually it’s a bunch of nonsensical ranting, and nothing more.