Americans Demand ‘Freedom’ to Pay More for Less: Der Tagesspiegel, Germany
Aug 24th, 2009 | 9 responses
What is the proper role of government in the lives of people? According to columnist Christoph von Marschall of the German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, it is the answer to this question that separates Europeans and Americans, and is at the heart of America’s debate over health care.
For Der Tagesspiegel, Christoph von Marschall writes in part:
“At issue is one of the fundamental ideological differences between the old world and the new: What freedoms and risks should society leave to the individual, and when should the community step in to help. On this point – the duties of the state – Americans and Europeans have nearly opposite views. Americans tend to consider it an evil. It is unfortunately necessary for the defense against enemies and their way of life as well as a few organizational tasks, but otherwise it should stay out of their lives. Europeans grant the state educational duties and responsibilities, from social security to salvaging the environment and climate. For the majority of Americans, this makes the hair on the back of their necks stand on end.”
By Christoph von Marschall
Translated By Jonathan Lobsien
August 19, 2009
Germany – Der Tagesspiegel – Original Article (German)
Little by little, the U.S. is turning Barack Obama himself, that exceptional politician, into a proper American. And he will not get a majority for the introduction of universal health insurance, even if he has approached the subject more cleverly than the Clintons did 15 years ago.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
opinions powered by SendLove.to
9 Responses to “Americans Demand ‘Freedom’ to Pay More for Less: Der Tagesspiegel, Germany”
The cartoon says it all I'm afraid. Marschall is right, most of the contention comes from ideological baggage. The simple realities and cures seem pretty obvious… to some of us.
So how many Americans want to be a Europeans? I sure don't.
in the early 1980's I spent a year in Europe & consider it a watershed time in my life. During that time I was hospitalized in Norway (1 day, my cost US$19) accidentally arrested in a Parisian riot (the pensione I was staying in was along the street most of the demonstrations were happening on. I was released almost immediately when they saw my passport) hitchhiked through 9 different countries & only had to show my passport at one border. & stayed in many individual homes allowing me an insight into the European mindset.
I also saw the “Alderhejm” or “old folks home” in Norway which my aunt moved into &, having some medical background, compared it with what is typical in the US for someone of her social/economic background & the US lost hands down. We don't really know respect for the elderly in this country.
The big “problem” as we in this country tend to see it is the issues of taxes. So why is it those “god hatin' commie pinko libruls” are willing to pay more taxes to support social programs they support than those “God fearin' amurica luvin' patriotic conservatives” are to support a war which they support? The typical European, at least among those I met, were happy to pay taxes which they knew were going to provide them a secure retirement & keep grandma around for as long as she wanted.
I can only think of one reason: greed. Could someone please disprove me?
Those crazy Americans. Their health care system is already the most expensive in the world and getting more so every year. Just one publicly run segment of it is facing a funding hole as big as the combined GDPs of every other country on the planet, which there isn't even a plan to close. And for some reason they're hesitating to expand it. There can be no explanation, other than they're a bunch of ideological nut-jobs.
Yeah, whatever you say, Helmut. Go lock up some holocaust deniers.
I think for the most part that Europeans “get” what it means to walk the walk of being their brother's keeper while Americans have been raised to believe spiritual mandates such as that one are only important to pay lip service to while retaining the “right” to refuse to manifest it.
Americans aren't just bucking government rule they are bucking spiritual rule. For the most part these in-name-only christians are reserving the right to refuse to follow spiritual edicts and governance.
A comment from another European
“Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.”
– Alexis de Tocqueville. How very accurate today.
Americans don't want to be like Europeans and their “social democracy” (democratic socialism), with a much larger size and role played by government. We aren't a collectivist people and don't have ages of collectivism in our own heritage (nor rigid structure, which in Europe explains as well as includes things like feudalism as well as totalitarianism), but have merely flirted with this role of government at a remote and restricted form, sometimes out of perceived need or “default” (a common explanation of the resort to several New Deal measures during the Depression), but what's often sought by activists is alien to us.
It's a shame that the better models we have for comparison and perhaps imitation, aren't directed instead primarily toward Australia (and New Zealand), as well as Canada, the latter also for intra-continental consistency if not very-long-term possible union.
Americans don't want to be like Europeans and their “social democracy” (democratic socialism), with a much larger size and role played by government. We aren't a collectivist people and don't have ages of collectivism in our own heritage (nor rigid structure, which in Europe explains as well as includes things like feudalism as well as totalitarianism), but have merely flirted with this role of government at a remote and restricted form, sometimes out of perceived need or “default” (a common explanation of the resort to several New Deal measures during the Depression), but what's often sought by activists is alien to us.
It's a shame that the better models we have for comparison and perhaps imitation, aren't directed instead primarily toward Australia (and New Zealand), as well as Canada, the latter also for intra-continental consistency if not very-long-term possible union.
I don't know why the foregoing got posted twice, when I only requested it once.
* * *
“No offense intended to Europe I just like being an American.”
That is the normal stance of normal Americans.
And never mind the broadness of this subject overall. Look at one item and its related unpleasant facts.
Note that the Europeans and their role of government features a cost as well as presence of government (often afforded by letting the USA defend, and spend its own money to defend, Europe) that is even more unsustainable, in a future featuring worse demographic and resulting financial and social challenges, than the USA and its own unsustainable elderly-related programs currently are set to face.
This has hardly been anything new. [sigh]
http://csis.org/program/global-aging-vulnerabil…
http://csis.org/publication/global-aging-and-su…
http://csis.org/event/economic-and-budgetary-im…
http://www.twq.com/02spring/hewitt.pdf