United States of Europe

Shipgate

Rear Admiral
I just finished this book by T.R. Reid and it was really good. It tells a lot about the European Union (which I never knew much about), how it was formed, what motivated it, and how it affects America and the way we do business.

It's a pretty fair book and the author did a lot of research into how many Europeans feel about Americans and vice versa. Some interesting distinctions included how Europe feels about capital punishment. And how it makes headlines clear over there whenever it's done here. Or how Europe is actually quite proud of their welfare state and how healthcare and higher education is mostly free. And sure they pay a lot more taxes than we do and their poverty is apparently not as bad as some may think. Since they have different standards of what it means to be in poverty.

Another thing I found interesting was in Norway when a women has a baby, she is paid what her annual salary is to stay at home for a year to raise her kid. And when she is ready to come back to work, her company is required by law to bring her back to work. Though they say this system is not perfect since it makes it harder for women to get jobs because of this. And companies can still not hire them back and claim it was for other reasons.

One of the most interesting parts I read about was how it is illegal to downsize in Europe. For awhile all the Burger King restaurants were owned by this British whiskey and beer company. During a really bad year they were losing a lot of money and knew they had to cut some corners to save some money. They would've considered shutting down some Burger King chains in Britain except that that was against the law to just lay people off like that. So instead they shut down a bunch of them in America because it's perfectly legal to do here.

Anyway, just thought I'd recommend this book to anyone who might be interested.
 
It's illegal to downsize in Europe? (and the book mentions them shutting down US Burger Kings rather than UK ones?) I can't answer for the rest of Europe but it would be nice if someone actually told the companies here in the UK that, because downsizing most certainly does happen.
 
Really? Well what happens if people do get laid off? The government takes pretty good care of you don't they? I'm still learning these things as I go.
 
Chris' brother T.R. has some 'splainin to do!

Remember when I lived in France? What a weird storyline that was.
 
The book sounds good when you read it but as always when you see the movie or in this case live the real deal its quite different eh?
 
Europe and the US are completely different cultures that have different priorities on things.

Europe tends to favor the human condition - helping the poor, equalizing opportunity, etc. The US tends to favor those who are willing to take risks and succeed. Which one is better? None, really - it's a very personal preference that's likely to change as one grows. When one is young, the Europe model looks stifling and confining, while the US model looks good. WHen one is older, perhaps the Europe model looks better than the US.

Same goes for other countries. Different cultures, different priorities. A European may look at the US in disgust over stuff like how they treat people and inequality. An American may look to Europe and see how disgusting high taxes are and how laid back life is.
 
panther said:
It's illegal to downsize in Europe? (and the book mentions them shutting down US Burger Kings rather than UK ones?) I can't answer for the rest of Europe but it would be nice if someone actually told the companies here in the UK that, because downsizing most certainly does happen.

Some day, I believe people eating at all fast food establishments all over the world will be able to freely choose small, medium or large fries and drink in their combo meals without fear of government repercussions.
 
It might be illegal to downsize on certain conditions. Like they did just takeover a (semi)governmental comany or even just an important national one. It wouldn't be uncommon in Austria to demand that all jobs are secure in that case for at least 10 years. Also it might be that in the example given they had been allowed to fire, but would have needed to pay some (lots) of compensation.

As for US/EU and chances. You won't be able to do the dishwasher to millionaire here, but on the other hand you won't be sleeping under a bridge either. Less risk less gain, really.
 
I love Euro-socialism. I love it so much, sometimes I just get the urge to go book a one-way ticket to Somalia :p.
 
Hehe, see, and therein lies the irony - Somalia, being a place run by warlords, with no central government (ok, ok, there's something out there now pretending to be the central government - but nobody cares)... has the best and cheapest internet/phone services in East Africa (which would probably put it in the top five or so for all of Africa). So writing would be the least problem :).


(of course, it's small consolation to have cheap mobile phone services when the phone salesman warns you not to use the phone outside, because you might attract the snipers' attention :p )
 
Considering Europe's history with various kinds of unions, over the centuries, personally I'm willing to take bets on when the current one will break up, over long-standing ethnic/national hatreds (Yugoslavia being an obvious, but not the only, example).
 
Shipgate said:
Another thing I found interesting was in Norway when a women has a baby, she is paid what her annual salary is to stay at home for a year to raise her kid.

I really hate that. They usually never spend that year with their kid anyway, so its pretty wasted. :mad:

Norway is also supposed to be the worlds best land to live in, but also have the highest suicide rate. I'm going too move away *somewhere* when i get the chance.
 
I think Europe is a bit overglorified and forcefed in the media over here in Belgium, what do you think KrisV?
 
Dyret said:
Norway is also supposed to be the worlds best land to live in, but also have the highest suicide rate. I'm going too move away *somewhere* when i get the chance.

That's probably of because of the insane high alcohol prices up there.
:p Seriously, with those guys there's almost something like "alcohol tourism". We often have people as tourists over here, and they usually stand out because of their excessive drinking orgies.

Death said:
Considering Europe's history with various kinds of unions, over the centuries, personally I'm willing to take bets on when the current one will break up, over long-standing ethnic/national hatreds (Yugoslavia being an obvious, but not the only, example).

That is rather unlikely. Contrary to what you might have heard, the ethnic situation in most Western and Middle European countries is very stable, excepting a few vocal minorities. What could be a problem, are some of the balcan countries, especially Serbia and Albania. However still, the situation there is a lot better than it was just a few years ago. And the other balcan countries likeCroatia, Slovenja are already mature democratic countries.
However, there are lot's of various problems waiting, still. But for what it's worht the EU has already fullfilled one of it's primary goals what it originally was found for besides being a trade union for coal and steel, namely to bring Germany and France together that there will never be open hostilities between them for the forseeable future.
 
I'm pretty sure "we are unitied, except for the parts that aren't" is a statement that can apply to any situation ever in the history of the world. :)
 
True.
However, many people seem to always mix up Europe And the European Union. While the European union can break up, it's rahter unlikely in the near future, while Europe itself has enough problems but it can't brak up since it's a continent. :p
 
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