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At Large
Thinking Outside the Bubble
An expatriate’s impressions after his return to the United States.
BOSTON — Visiting the United States this month after several years as an expatriate in France, I am fascinated to see this giant American bubble inside which live 310 million people, about half of them contented and half of them permanently angry at something.
Of course one must be cautious in comparing civilizations but the peculiarities of the United States leap out at you — ils sautent aux yeux, as the French say, they jump at your eyes.
I say “bubble” because in three weeks of schmoozing with relatives and friends, most of them accomplished professionals, I sense a drift toward willful isolationism. Iraq and Afghanistan have never come up in conversation without my prodding. Only a cab driver volunteered an opinion and that was on corruption among military contractors. “These thieves make my skin crawl,” he said, taking three fives from me for a short ride across town.
The suburbs of Boston are probably typical of the educated U.S. population so I have taken them as representative. One Sudbury matron explained to me her apathy about American wars by the fact that she and her friends know no one personally involved. “It all seems to abstract,” she said. She seemed equally unconcerned about the trillions of American dollars poured into the wars although she does hate paying her taxes.
From a visitor’s perch, the only people intellectually engaged in the rights and wrongs of the war effort seem to be policy wonks, professional opinionators and NPR junkies.
They should all read Bill Pfaff’s latest book, The Irony of Manifest Destiny. He argues that the war on terror is a huge and unnecessary waste more suited to “good police work.” Pfaff echoes the sentiments of many expats who believe that Americans, unlike Europeans, love to see their military in action. The New York Times dismissed Pfaff’s engaging thesis with a one-paragraph review buried inside a recent Sunday books section.
A related contrast is the volatile national debate on often-marginal issues that surface on cable television and the blogosphere. Europeans enjoy a confrontation too but they are better at marshaling an argument and pursuing a point in depth, sometimes with more courage than bluster. Just before leaving France I was riveted to a discussion between a government minister and a veiled Muslim woman. “How am I to trust you?” the minister asked. “You can see me but I cannot see you.” France has since gone on to ban the burqa in public.
A visitor to the United States also notices the zigzags of public discourse here. Subjects surge to the surface, burn brightly for a 24-hour news cycle, and vanish, as in the cases of Shirley Sherrod, the latest hit-Iran predictions, and anything President Barack Obama does or says.
Of all the divisive issues separating the contented from the angry Americans, Islam is the most emotional. One in four Americans persist in believing that President Obama is a Muslim, prompting a general unease throughout the land. Yet France, Germany and Britain all have larger proportions of Muslim populations and seem to have found a modus vivendi. Only in Holland has a backlash formed at the political level.
I tell my European friends to go easy on us, that on a per capita basis we are only averagely crazy. Now I’m not so sure. I dropped in at the Boston Public Library one hot morning and find the place deserted except for the Internet access room. There, 59 of the 60 computers were already occupied at 9:30 a.m. and I got the last one.
Seated next to me in the aisle was a disturbed woman wearing a wooly hat staring straight ahead.
All over Boston and Brookline (where I am staying with relatives) numerous people are wandering the streets unsure of where they are or who they are. Many are carrying large containers of cola or coffee. Hospitals, I am told, hurry psychotic patients back on the street as soon as they are deemed harmless to themselves or others.
Europe’s healthcare system, including mental healthcare, is far more measured and compassionate.
Healthcare in Europe is of course an area of sharp contrast with the United States. On a cost basis alone, I’ll take Europe any day. Daily blood pressure pills will cost you $1.20 a month in France compared to $56 in Massachusetts. A friend paid $160 to fix his broken elbow in Bordeaux. Equivalent care in the United States would come in at about $700.
But it is the commercialization of U.S. hospitals that rankle most. Hospitals were once services, not businesses, but now even prestigious Memorial Sloan-Kettering buys full-page ads to claim patients “often have better outcomes than those treated elsewhere.” Who believes advertising?
Letter to the Editor View all comments (134) | Leave a comment
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Ken (Old Texican)| 8.31.10 @ 6:42AM
Mr. Johnson,
Heh, I think you live in the smallest bubble I have seen recently. I too was an ex-pat for two years running a company in the middle east.
I spent a lot of time in Europe negotiating contracts and... visiting local folks for fun.
Sir, the French upper crust with whom you seem to gravitate, and the Boston suburb you came home to, are both pretty insular. We Texans might even say..."snooty".
Why not get out to the mountains and the prairies for a change.
Enjoy your stay home, in any case.
Sam Vaughn| 8.31.10 @ 1:20PM
Ken, you got that right! I read this and my first reaction was Boston? In the state that I live, sort of an eastern Alaska, you get the picture, the "natives" refer to people from Massachusetts in unflattering ways. Much like a Southerner would joke about what's the difference between a Yankee and dam* Yankee (one who stays). People from the NE intellectual circle and intellectual "wanna-be" circle spend more time looking down their noses at fly-by country than anything else. I usually invoke the saying "seek to understand before you seek to be understood..." but since my state university education lacks pedigree I'm immediately dismissed....
Adrian of the Plains| 8.31.10 @ 1:42PM
Amen Sir!
There is a vast tract of America that is quite well awakened from their recent decades-long malaise. Judging from the testimonials of relatives and my dealings in business travel (commercial/civic construction) that tract begins somewhere on the south end of the Atlantic seaboard, stretches west toward Laredo and extend north practically all the way to Edmonton.
Chuck| 8.31.10 @ 8:33PM
Yes, about Boston -- what they said. There are a lot of educated people all over the place who don't think too much about the so-called education of Boston suburbanites. After all, they gave us Kerry, Kennedy, Obama and a host of other assorted liars and nincompoops. I'll take the education of my homeboys over shyster "where were the regulators? -- oh, that's me" Barney Frank any day.
Tom near Boston| 8.31.10 @ 10:00PM
Hi Chuck,
You forgot about Dukakis, too.
I won't be defensive about this place I live in -- everybody is basically right about Massholes. But most of the folks who voted for Scott Brown are just as disappointed as you in his turning RINO on us. And there's a counntry club Republican running for governor who would be 10 points up instead of 10 points down if he just had the stones to come out against gay marriage.
I'm telling you, there's something happening even here. There are regular Americans (read: conservatives) even here. It's just that we've been conditioned into shutting up lest we get an earful from a moonbat neighbor. Pretty pathetic, I know.
Mike| 8.31.10 @ 6:46AM
You went from France to Boston and claim to understand what's happening in America? May I suggest that in some respects you never left Europe.
Mike| 8.31.10 @ 6:46AM
You went from France to Boston and claim to understand what's happening in America? May I suggest that in some respects you never left Europe.
Murray Kahn| 8.31.10 @ 6:48AM
Dear Mr. Johnson,
The French didn't invent smug, they perfected it. I dearly love the French and I loved my time there, but you have left one bubble for another. When I ask my French friends about the riots in Paris, they always respond, "No one goes THERE!" Your piece is filled with unconscioous ironies. Welcome home.
Ret. Marine| 8.31.10 @ 6:59AM
" Islam is the most emotional. One in four believe obama is muslim, prompting a general unease throughout the land. Yet in France, Germany and Britian all have large proportions of muslim populations and seem to have found a modus vivendi."
You act as though the larger porportion of the American public has never heard of or read foreign papers. I for one know of the areas of these populations of muslims where your police not only fear to go but, out right refuse to go and as you write this it only beggs the question of you as to how stupid do you really think we are? We know of the burning of the vehicles on a nightly basis, we know of these area's and the laws that pertain to them, that of sharia, and all of this coming from an ex-patriot who went to France of all places? Please forgive me for my instincts to know a fool when I read one. I think you probably fit quite nice with your slave holders by the name of islam. We are American, we do not cottton up to a political system that equates to the same goals as communism, totalatarian, marxist or for that matter sharia law. Emotional, no you used the wrong word, we are not fearful, we are in fact very knowledgeable of the threats all of these "isms" pose. Some of us even know this is not going to allowed to stand under our watch, come hell or high water, islam as they know it will be killed off in the near future, it is not acceptable for the average American to submit to anyone or their moon-god and you should have at the least a little understanding of what America really is, I guess this is why you now call yourself an x-pat. Good riddence, we have enough here already thinking France is some sort of cool society, personally I think you are all wimps and never understood the term, "man up" ut, that's just me. Now go back home and let that sink in.
L. Ross| 8.31.10 @ 12:40PM
Hear, hear.
Paraphrasing George Neumar slightly,
Is Obama a Muslim? He speaks of his "Muslim roots," he hails from "generations of Muslims," he is the son of a Muslim father with an Arabic name, went to a Muslim school in Indonesia, speaks glowingly of Islam often, holds a Ramadan dinner in the White House, tells his NASA head to turn the space agency into a Muslim outreach program, supports the Ground Zero mosque, and insults Christians routinely.
Please sir, don't try to sell your peaceful accomodation with islam in Europe tripe here. I to have spent a great deal of time in Europe, and there is no accomodation. Europeans are simply being over-run by muslim immigrants, much in the same way we are being over-run by illegal immigrants.
Danny Lemieux| 9.1.10 @ 8:28AM
And the last time that the French or any other European country elected a dark-skinned man with a Muslim father as their leader was.....when, exactly? I lived in France far more years that Mr. Johnson and I don't recognize the country of which he speaks. Bubbles, indeed.
Nicolas Ziener_France| 8.31.10 @ 5:40PM
Well, .... take your meds and go to bed
Radegunda| 8.31.10 @ 10:32PM
I too was wondering how much Mr. Johnson really knows about Europe if he thinks the infidels have reached a comfortable modus vivendi with all those turbulent, demanding, and frequently violent Muslims. Does it mean he just stays far away from those 700+ "sensitive urban zones"? I assume that if he goes to the Gard du Nords in Paris, he takes care not to venture far outside the station.
Perhaps what he means is that the Europeans are just further along the path of submission. At least the British are, but I don't see evidence that it's resulting in a comfortable peace.
As for Obama, I don't think that Americans "persist" in believing he's a Muslim; more likely they've reached that conclusion by studying an accumulation of words and actions.
Radegunda| 8.31.10 @ 10:44PM
Oops, I meant Gare du Nord.
James| 9.1.10 @ 1:44PM
The average American probably *has not* read a foreign paper in recent memory. Not so in Europe. Practically any stranger on a train not only speaks better English than you do, but may know more about US politics and business than you.
As for the bubble, its walls are thinner in Boston than in most other US cities. I'm from the Midwest and for most of my compatriots, the world ends at the Jersey Shore. With Snooky.
Compared with the average European, the average American is poorly educated, mono-cultural, unenlightened, and -- when all else fails -- dumb.
In the end, nobody will be more sorry about that than the Americans themselves, whose century ended at the 50-year mark, give or take.
John Daniel| 8.31.10 @ 7:03AM
Boston typical? Next time try crossing the Potomac....
Capt G| 8.31.10 @ 7:08AM
"The suburbs of Boston are probably typical of the educated U.S. population so I have taken them as representative."
Nothing that follows this supposition is a surprise.
What is a surprise is that the Amspec would publish this drive-by drivel.
Kap'n Krunch| 8.31.10 @ 11:19AM
My BS meter went on at that sentence too.
I'm also surprised that this was in AmSpec.
If this was supposed to be satire, it was poorly executed.
uncle curmudgeon| 8.31.10 @ 5:12PM
And who in their right mind listens to NPR?
Stammon| 8.31.10 @ 11:52AM
You really are in a small closet Mr. Johnson. Having grown up in California and Connecticut I am well inured to the insular thinking of this self satisfied, self deluded bunch. You remind me of the Manhattan maven, who, when Nixon was elected, cried" How could this happen, no one I know voted for him?"
You really really need to go to Cincinnati, or Atlanta, or Phoenix or somewhere other than the cloistered lib little world of true believers.
And just so we are on the same level, my wife is fluent in French, my sister in law is French, and my 17 year old just got back from 6 weeks there polishing up her French. Not all the French believe as you do.
John II| 8.31.10 @ 2:27PM
"You remind me of the Manhattan maven, who, when Nixon was elected, cried 'How could this happen, no one I know voted for him?'"
That would be Pauline Kael. De mortua nil nisi bonum and all that, but Kael's film criticism was pretty insular too. Perhaps Mr. Johnson is the son of a chicken farmer, preoccupied with a life-long task of distancing himself as much as possible from his roots.
On the other hand, perhaps he was just bred to his smugness and snobbery. These are deep waters.
TrickleUpPolitics| 8.31.10 @ 11:03PM
Capt G, I wondered too why AmSpec would publish this drivel. And talk about condescending. Leave the country for a few years and all of a sudden you notice how provincial we are in the colonies? Like France is anything to write home about. And I agree with the other posters that you are mistaken when you say that Europe has reached a cultural equilibrium with Muslims. Europeans are just too wussy to stand up for themselves. They'll wait until there's a crisis and wait for the American military to come drag their asses out of it....you know, the military that WE like to see in action so much. I just read that Britain and France are going to start sharing an aircraft carrier to cut costs. Yeah, good luck with that. The reason Europe doesn't like to see their military in action is because it is a pathetic sight. "Typical of the educated US population"? I would like to know your definition of "educated population". What a snob. Another American who feels inferior about his roots, now feels superior after some years in France. Who'da thunk it?
Marty| 8.31.10 @ 7:13AM
Only a French expatriate would consider Boston as representative of the US. Wow settle any where for a while on the other side of the Mississippi and get a real feel for the wonderful generosity, education (read common sense--much less common on the two coasts), and anger at the way our country is being changed. The only decent thing that Massachusetts has provided for the country recently was Scott Brown.
NE-Rich| 8.31.10 @ 7:20AM
After living in France for 4 years, the return to the US was quite a revelation. The best thing about returning was being 'home' again. The worst, at least here in the Northeast was the polarized America-hating media, the self-righteous left and anti-American attitudes of my neighbors and co-workers, especially in the high tech industry.
The author's description of France is an upper-crust fantasy - much as stated by an earlier writer. I too utilized the French medical system but as a long-time taxpayer. My French neighbors all tried to use the 'American' or 'English' run private hospitals if they could afford it. Every visit to the state-funded doctor was strictly limited in the amount of time and services extended. Yes, healthcare costs more in the US but that is more due to rat's nest of government regulation and tax laws that have turned health service providers into clerks and report creating drones to protect the medical service staff from lawsuits and government witch hunts.
De Madrid| 9.1.10 @ 12:32PM
Let us not forget that the cost for the services that Michael commends come ON TOP of the already extortionist tax rates that exist there.
JLKrueger| 8.31.10 @ 7:24AM
"The suburbs of Boston are probably typical of the educated U.S. population so I have taken them as representative. One Sudbury matron explained to me her apathy about American wars by the fact that she and her friends know no one personally involved. "It all seems to abstract," she said."
Ok, well that pretty much killed the piece. If'n you got away from the elitist snobs you hang with, you'd find LOTS of people who have friends and family personally involved in the wars and for whom the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are VERY personal. They just don't seem to come from your kind of snooty leftist elitist families very much.
clarityrising| 8.31.10 @ 7:42AM
Wow, what a waste of perfectly good electrons. I know they're cheap, but...
Sir, you don't just live in a bubble, but a self-contained eco-system of elitist snobbery, so take your quiche and leave and don't let the truth hit you on the way out.
potkas7| 8.31.10 @ 7:46AM
Instead of swanning about the preceincts of Brookline, Sudbury, and the BPL, listening to NPR and musing on how the caffeine-addled hoi polloi wanders the streets not knowing who or where they are, why not take your world-weary traveler shtick over to Fenway Park or Revere Beach and see how it plays there?
The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto recently brought to light a new phobia first described by Roger Scruton: "Oikophobia," - a sort of "anti-culture" in which what is "Ours" is despised and what is 'Theirs" embraced. Scruton said it is a stage through which the adolescent mind normally passes.
As I read this piece all I could think is, "God, what an Oik!"
JP| 8.31.10 @ 7:54AM
Michael, I lived overseas for a time also. However, I am from Fly-Over Country and not Beantown (however, I do have very fond memories of Boston when I lived there briefly as a teen). Boston and New Englans in general is not the US. And the small town I live in you run into vets all the time. Here there the war is not an abstraction. Last month, in neighboring farm towns and villages there were 2 military funerals. And this week a the body of a 28 year old infantry man will be put to rest.
Here there is anger too. But it is the anger of 100,000 unemployed RV workers who still cannot find employment. Boston is one of the highest credentialed cities in the nation. Almost everyone has an MBA or Masters degree. But here in Fly-Over Country, about the only credential you will find is a GED or HS diploma. People here work in the fields, on construction sites, or in factories. There are few zombies who spend thier lives walking the streets with 32 oz Big Gulps or high octaine Starbucks (if there are such people here, they are usually passed out from Chrystal Meth and living in double wides. But that is another matter).
But I do agree with your assessment of our hospitals. The commericalization is due both the professionalization of our society (got to do something with all of those MBAs), and huge govermental intrusion into our healthcare system. Medicare has forced many doctors to mazimize thier non-Medicare revenues (ie private insurance). This is done through the development of large medical practices. An assembly line approach to medicen is the result. The growth of the healthcare "market" (ie the commericalization of healthcare) has created an entire bureaucracy of non-medical professionals (meaning not MD or nurses), which adds to the costs. Just look at the titles: health care professionals have replaced doctors and nurses. These are the people who get between you and your doctor.
Finally, I suggest you travel outside of New England. I'm not saying that South Dakota is more represenative of the US. But niether is New England.
Glenn| 8.31.10 @ 7:55AM
As many have said, I will take my free enterprise, private industry based health care over any govenrment provided services. The examples given are anecdotal and certainly not the basis for decisions that should be made regarding how health care services should be provided.
Stuart Koehl| 8.31.10 @ 8:14AM
" Yet France, Germany and Britain all have larger proportions of Muslim populations and seem to have found a modus vivendi. "
Yeah--one called appeasement. Basically, one law for Muslims, another for everyone else, and a presumption that anything offensive to Muslim sensibilities should be suppressed.
Appleby| 8.31.10 @ 2:22PM
Is this man a time traveller from Vichy? I heard eerie echoes of the 1930s in everything he wrote. There was a movie called "The Remains of the Day" (I think) that came out about the same time as "Shadowlands" (both Antony Hopkins movies) that was the story of a man like the one who wrote this piece. Looking the other way while the world burns. And when it catches fire, it will not be a matron from Sudbury who saves your French derriere.
WayneH| 8.31.10 @ 6:08PM
Toucher!!
martin j smith| 8.31.10 @ 8:14AM
Mr johnson I am not at all sure why you posted your post ? What are youtrying to tell us ?
Le me guess: France ( or your version of it ) is superior to our country. You know what Mr johnson,. who the hell cares what you think. We in this country have lives to lead and things to cope with including a government that is very destructive. You sound like an incidental tourist karping on the superiority of your new found home. Its reverting from the Ugly American to the Ugly European. That is the new thing. I live in a large city withy many European tourists--this is the way I see them--I'll take their money but that is it.
Stuart Koehl| 8.31.10 @ 8:15AM
"Europe's healthcare system, including mental healthcare, is far more measured and compassionate."
Really? Or am I reading something cribbed from "The Onion".
Pecos Pete| 8.31.10 @ 8:18AM
"She seemed equally unconcerned about the trillions of American dollars poured into the wars although she does hate paying her taxes."
Trillions ... poured into the wars? Where did you get trillions? Maybe you meant the trillions poured into entitlements?
At least I agree on hating to pay taxes.
martin j smith| 8.31.10 @ 8:27AM
I'll take another shot at Mr Johnson:
France, the the rest of Europe have in my view given up their culture and identity to some dgree due to their appeasement towards Muslim extremeists. Lets take for example free speech. Please do not try to tell me that the Muslim population has not had a negative impact on free speech. There have been two terrorist attacks on the other end of the Pond. One in London, actually three if you include Lockerbie--and the other in Madrid. I am not thrilled with how europe deals with radical islam. I think there is fear and loathing. That is my view. Sir, I would rather live here where still you have conflicting views, arguments and a possibility to get to the truth then where you are which In my view is NOT FO ME. So keep it for you just p-lease AmSpec no more of this garbage please.
SC Mike| 8.31.10 @ 8:29AM
Evaluating Yurrip in terms of Massachusetts is akin to comparing tangerines and oranges: they are more similar than not. You visited a commonwealth governed (?) by a guy among whose first acts in office was the abolition of the government office responsible for the excellence of public schools. This ostensibly money-saving act was accompanied by the lease of a luxury vehicle for his official use, at least until word got out and he reimbursed the treasury.
There is much wrong with US healthcare and its financing, but if you need some sort of tricky procedure, the US is still the place to have it taken care of until India gears up its medical tourism industry. Consider that while Obamacare will hurt US medicine, it’s a death sentence for many Canadians.
I agree that $56 is indeed steep for a month’s supply of blood pressure pills. Were you to take your prescription to a Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart, you could get a ninety-day supply for $10, and save a buck per box of brand name cereal while you’re at it.
The big reason that the US has more crazies on its streets has nothing to do with healthcare, but with options. France has far more elected offices and civil servant positions to employ the neurotic and psychotic, not to mention the vast possibilities afforded by the European Parliament and its uncivil service. Instead of panhandling, these folks are shuffling papers and devising insane regulations. They are no less bothersome, just more distant.
Finally, Yurripeans don’t like fighting because they have little to fight for. They have surrendered, content to live out their final days on a pension in their apartments or in Greece or Spain. They abandoned a future when they stopped breeding a generation or so ago, apparently content to leave their lands in the hands of the newcomers. Those few left will salute the conversion of Notre Dame de Paris to a mosque a few years hence. It’s not worth fighting for.
When Britain and France start planning to share warships…
The Sage of Mount Airy| 8.31.10 @ 8:32AM
As many have commented on his snooty tone, allow me to point out Mr. Johnson's ignorance of basic economics. If the cost of one month of blood pressure pills is $56, then the cost is $56. If in France you pay only $1.20 when you actually get the pills, it's because you and the citizens of France have already paid the other $54.80 in the form of taxes. The cost is the cost and socialized medicine can not make it go away.
geneo| 8.31.10 @ 8:38AM
Next time, visit America... not the Brookline/Boston area. Mass. is really just a whannabe Euro lite. Euro and Mass. do not believe in Natural Rights. Real America still does. That divide is what separates Euro from America. And, what separates Mass. from America.
JimP| 8.31.10 @ 8:45AM
Ditto all the criticisms posted above. It was like everyone was reading my mind. Yes, why IS this column on AS? What is Mr. Johnson's point putting it HERE? And, as has been pointed out, it is so one sided it is like an advertisement for France and "Who believes advertising?" The solution is for all the American leftists, New Englanders and the people Mr. Johnson knows to move to France. It will be a win-win. France will get a bunch of snooty, detached Bourbons and welfare recipients that fit right in to their culture and don't eat at MacDonalds. America will be rid of the statist, Keynesian, busybodies who have been turning America into France. The perfect solution. N'est-ce pas?
Denver Todd| 8.31.10 @ 8:50AM
Don't take Johnson's medical care comparison too seriously. He didn't compare apples to apples. The $160 was in Euros while the $700 was in pesos. Bottom line: our retail healthcare is still cheaper.
Bob K.| 8.31.10 @ 9:07AM
It would be good for you, Mr. Johnson, to see the rest of your home country but I do not think you will bother. It will bewilder you so!
Move back to Europe where you will be more comfortable, more at home, Mr. Johnson. Where your ancestors originated. They must have had genes in their bloodline that did not pass down to you.
Do you have any relatives who ever got out of Boston? Perhaps they could give you a tour of the America you are missing?
St. Thor| 8.31.10 @ 9:20AM
Can Mr. Johnson explain where the compassion was a few years ago when a heat wave hit France and 10,000 people died because the doctors that should have been caring for them were too busy on their Riviera vacations to be bothered to come back and treat actual people in distress?
Steve a| 8.31.10 @ 10:00AM
Dear Michael, 3 things (1) After growing up in New England until my 20's I can promise you that your Mass. experience is not a litmus test for the rest of the country. (2) True, we really are not all that concerned with the opinion of some quasi-socialist sitting in a cafe in Paris with 11 weeks vacation. (3) Perhaps you should ship yourself back on over to the land of enlightenment.
ColoradoWest| 8.31.10 @ 10:08AM
Suburbs of Boston!?
Typical of those living in the bubble to be sure...
Raven2XS| 8.31.10 @ 10:12AM
Mr. Johnson I know most Americans don't want to become Europeans, much less French ones. I somehow recall a war fought to free ourselves from the British types a while back. Soo, if you need a oneway ticket back to frogland, I'll be happy to help. BTW my blood pressure med's cost 20 bucks a month in Texas with my private insurance. I think thats very reasonable.
martin j smith| 8.31.10 @ 10:15AM
I am having fun. Mr Johnson speaking of someone who lives in a bubble I am curious--are you Jewish ?
Probably not but one never knows does one ? I do not think Jews are having fun in Europe except perhaps as tourists--not as citizens. The New AntiSemitism of the Left associated of course with Muslim Radicalism is ever present. but... You and your bubble. Well - We have enough issues with our Left and Radical muslim population here. Keep your Paris or wherever. But, someday Mr Johnson the Radical Islamists will come after you too. When that happens, perhaps yopu will come out of your bubble.
George True| 8.31.10 @ 10:19AM
What everybody here said.
Publius| 8.31.10 @ 10:24AM
"Europeans enjoy a confrontation too but they are better at marshaling an argument and pursuing a point in depth, sometimes with more courage than bluster." The classic oxymoron----a courageous Frenchman.
I suppose the fact of our "willful isolationism" should scare the hell out of your fellow countrymen. If true, pray tell, who is going to bail your pompous and cowardly asses out the next time?
erp| 8.31.10 @ 10:28AM
Go back to France.
Dave| 8.31.10 @ 11:22AM
Ditto that.
TnJoe| 8.31.10 @ 11:11AM
I worked overseas for two years (Thailand). Luckily I didn't stay over there long enough to become a prentious as this guy.
TnJoe| 8.31.10 @ 11:12AM
Sorry. pretentious
Rich Berger| 8.31.10 @ 11:17AM
"Yet France, Germany and Britain all have larger proportions of Muslim populations and seem to have found a modus vivendi."
For the French, those annual government-sponsored riots seem to have done the trick. Too bad the Americans are so unsophisticated.
Bill| 8.31.10 @ 12:21PM
The recent French flap over the burqua and Muslim acts of terrorism in Britain seem to suggest that the modus vivendi may be a will o' the wisp in those countries, sort of like the French and English whistling past the graveyard.
Kishego| 8.31.10 @ 11:20AM
Six years as a news Exec in New York? Hmmmm. Boston suburbs as a representative sample of the rest of the country? Wow, I think a little french word comes to mind for the likes of you "Douche" (I think its a french word, even if not it seems apropos).
Stammon| 8.31.10 @ 12:03PM
I am eating lunch reading this and you made ice tea come up through my nose.
Publius| 8.31.10 @ 4:24PM
Hey Kishego,
You forgot the "bag".
Kishego| 8.31.10 @ 4:32PM
Don't know how to say "bag" in french.
Danny Lemieux| 9.1.10 @ 8:39AM
bag = Sac
Capt G| 8.31.10 @ 11:31AM
A heck of a morning and first impression eh, Mr. Johnson?
Someone must have gotten confused during the submission of your piece. This is the "nasty, brutish, and short" school of capitalism. From your biography it appears that you make your living as a writer. While I'm sure that the French would not let you starve to death I might suggest that your next submission be directed to: 1331 H St., NW Suite 700, Washington, DC 20005. "TNR" publishes fluff like your's all the time, with some of it's providers actually achieving a subsistence level existence. Aside from a potential economic viability, you'll find a receptive audience there for musing from the Brookline-Paris axis.
Hanging around here you're eventually going to have to confront the fact that Johnny Damon chose Detroit over Boston, and that collision with reality cannot but go badly for you.
Good day to you, sir.
Texas Mom| 8.31.10 @ 11:48AM
Have to agree with most of the posts thus far. It's ridiculous that anyone would consider the suburbs of Boston representative of our nation. Our extended family is granted quite large but has had quite a few serve in this century and the last. I pay attention and pray for our troops every day. (Although, the death counts have mysteriously dropped from the daily news since Obama was inaugurated.) BTW, here in Texas, France is the REASON my French grandmother refused to teach my Dad the language! Just saying.
Vector| 8.31.10 @ 11:49AM
The only people you know don't know anybody who has served their country. EVERYBODY I KNOW KNOWS SOMEBODY WHO HAS SERVED THEIR COUNTRY. Who is living in a bubble? Your article is an exercise in irony sir.
I've spent a lot of time working in France and spent years overseas myself. France went from a superpower to a 3rd world country with Nukes because of liberalism. You just came from a country that lets old people die of the heat in the summer and nobody knows because they are on their six week vacations when the aren't getting their cars torched by muslims. Now what do you have to teach us again? LOL!
Baseball Mom| 8.31.10 @ 2:29PM
That's right. Here in flyover country, pretty much everyone knows someone who has a friend or relative in the military.
Guess that isn't so in Boston. Talk about insulated.
martin j smith| 8.31.10 @ 11:59AM
Dear Amspec Editor: Why did you put out this post ?
Please help me out here.
Danny Lemieux| 9.1.10 @ 8:40AM
To address the problem, you must first define the problem.
buckeyeman| 8.31.10 @ 12:04PM
Je crois que vous etes completement fous! You must have gotten into some of that moldy barley that contributed to the insanity of the French Revolution. There isn't one observation in your piece worth reading except to use as a punching bag for people who actually have a brain. Please go back to France or at least remain in Boston but stay the hell out of Ohio.
Bill| 8.31.10 @ 12:15PM
Funny, I've been living every day in the United States since my two European trips thirty years ago, and I talk about Iraq and Afghanistan with my fellow Americans nearly every day.
I agree that news is highly transitory. 'Twas ever thus in every age, everywhere. It's the nature of news.
As for Eurpoeans being able to focus on a political point and argue it, I admit that the French do seem to be sophisticated about politics. However, their society actually found communism credible for something like 60 or 70 years before its moral and political bankruptcy finally hit them on the head. I don't find German politics particularly noteworthy. Jacshka Fisher, take note. For a feeling for the British take on politics over the past 40 years or so, one might read the books Strange Days Indeed, Londonistan, and The World Turned Upside Down. There are Europeans who see the political and cultural values of the United States as the hope of the West.
Bill| 8.31.10 @ 12:26PM
On health care, I'll choose the private insurance route every day over socialized medicine, for all the reasons that people routinely point out. I'd rather have private insurance and the risks of not having it than paying half of my income in taxes to support government-run health care.
DonDuke | 8.31.10 @ 12:30PM
I'm surprised at the number of comments here on this. This article sure didn't "jump out at my eyes". It actually was such a bore that it made my eyes heavy.
Handy| 8.31.10 @ 12:35PM
Buy a couple more tickets and sponsor some Bostonians for French citizenship on your return flight. Maybe they could join the Fench Foreign Legion and join the battle.
Oops, I forgot, Frogs don't fight.
Enjoy your stay, and spend some of those Euros while you are here, you loser.
Philip| 8.31.10 @ 12:38PM
What a snooty, self-important post. This article was so full of euro-centric blather it was difficult to imagine how you were able to publish it on this, most respected site.
For you sake, I hope you stay is short and you are to return to your beloved France.
Mr. Rolf| 8.31.10 @ 12:51PM
Must agree with the author's view in regard to the commercialization of American health care vs. that of France. Hell, the best thing of all would be for me to set my own elbow fracture rather than pay 700$ or even 160$.
And I rememeber that stupid ad. "Come to Sloan Kettering, or you'll die elsewhere!"
Howard| 8.31.10 @ 1:03PM
Actually I'm glad this post was written. It serves to reinforce the stereotypes we all believe regarding arrogant elitists. The author was attempting to relate to us, but, he merely indicates that he is a John Kerry type elitist.
Handy| 8.31.10 @ 1:11PM
Long time Mcgraw-Hill employee? Isn't that the biggest publisher of text books? No wonder our kids never learn anything of value.
Congratulations posters; I am proud to be among your number.
This guy is just pukable.
Brad Cremeens| 8.31.10 @ 1:41PM
I think I'm the only person that liked Mr. Johnson's piece.
Handy| 8.31.10 @ 2:57PM
Carry his bags back to France. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
Publius| 8.31.10 @ 4:12PM
And while you're at it Brad, why don't you blow him.
TrickleUpPolitics| 8.31.10 @ 11:15PM
Publius, now you've made ice tea come out of my nose.
canuckistani| 8.31.10 @ 3:08PM
I liked it too, but for revealing his preference for an unsustainable system.
What the spectators here understand is that Europe is probably the most at risk of crumbling as anywhere in the world.
It was pure nationalism that drove colonies, innovation, development, and wars. It was the precipitous decline of Europe's influence after WW2 that made them throw in the towel and go the socialist route. The eastern bloc nations, after nearly 50 years of darkness are infertile dead zones of mediocrity, that are dragging the mighty Germany further into the abyss. Their work ethic is second to none, and they are surrounded by lazy eurotrash at all levels of society in the union. France is the best example of an insular society grabbing for any pseudo-racist populist stance to preserve their culture. Their master race are lazy, negative progenitors, and possess a declining productivity due to the age and staleness of their work force. The vacuum they create by their own hands can only be filled with Muslims. It is inevitable.
The US still has time to get their women into the maternity wards before it's too late.
Nicolas Ziener_France| 8.31.10 @ 6:36PM
Damn it! You speak of an unsustainable system ! What about the USA being buried in trillions of debt to sustain the famed "american way of life" that cannot be sustained anymore on its own.
Talk about unsustainable systems !!!
JimP| 8.31.10 @ 6:47PM
Nicky, all us cowboy conservative tea party types are going to turn the deficit thing around. It was leftists who gave us the debt you refer to. Some of our Republicans, and ALL of our Democrats want us to be just like you. They are the problem, especially when it comes to the debt.
Bon chance, mon ami.
Radegunda| 8.31.10 @ 10:58PM
The debt is a result of leftist Democrats' (and some leftist Republicans') wish to remake the country into something more like collectivist Europe. Note that it exploded right after the leftists got their hands on all the levers of power.
Purple Lips| 8.31.10 @ 1:50PM
I wonder why Miss Alabama hasn't wieghed in. Normally, in a post like this, she would pop-in and expound on the wonders of Europe, thier fine wine, fine food, and superior way of life.
Dai Alanye | 8.31.10 @ 1:54PM
I Imagine the average French high school student, here for a week's visit, could write a more perceptive article than Johnson has managed. Thinking Outside the Bubble is simply ignorant bilge.
SF_Exile| 8.31.10 @ 2:06PM
As a native New Englander and a Boston-area resident for close to 20 years (now in San Francisco - but that's a separate story) the thought of relying on some Sudbury matron or self-absorbed Brookline-ite as being indicative of ‘typical of the educated U.S. population’ is laughable. As others have said, take your foolishness up with folks in Chelmsford or Wilmington or Fitchburg - towns whose citizens have offered plenty of their sons and daughters to our war effort - they're the ones you need to speak to.
Boston's Metro-West suburbs are notorious for their Left leaning tendencies and are often popular targets due to their citizens’ moonbat ideas. It’s worth noting that Judge Arthur Garrity, whose ill-fated legal ruling brought forced busing upon Boston’s public schools in the 70s, lived in Wellesley, safely tucked away from the city and roiling violence he unwittingly unleashed. In many ways Boston still has not recovered from that debacle.
I think it’s safe to say that the plunge in television news ratings might be better attributed to a general public’s growing frustration with content being shoved at them that does not reflect what they’re experiencing or feeling. In other words, what CNN is trying to dish out doesn’t past the smell test. Being rebuked for opposing gay marriage or supporting pro-life issues (and many in Massachusetts don’t) isn’t the way to win supporters. The same thing for newspapers. One small factoid that Mr. Johnson doesn’t mention is that many of the large newspapers in France are either owned by or are receiving some sort of financial propping-up from the government. If Paris doesn’t want something published, it doesn’t happen. Journalists who attempt to tell their stories, warts and all, are blackballed or intimidated into watering down their work, the loss of their livelihoods threat enough for them to do so.
And I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Holland and their Muslim ‘backlash’. They may be seeing things more clearly than any of us on this issue.
fundamentalist| 8.31.10 @ 2:12PM
I have spent some time oversees, too, and I think Johnson has "gone native." When people go oversees, they fall in love with the local culture and soon develop an attitude that the local culture has everything all figured out and the US could learn a lot from them. We called that "going native." But if you stay long enough for the honeymoon with the new culture to end so that you can see their warts, you'll see they have more problems than we do. Check out this post about Finland, the “best country in the world" according to Newsweek: http://blog.mises.org/13732/th.....are-state/
Roughcoat| 8.31.10 @ 2:36PM
Hypothetical: You leave the front door to your house open. A stranger walks in, says that your house looks like hell, then takes a crap on the floor and leaves.
Thank you, Michael Johnson.
Bill| 8.31.10 @ 5:42PM
Don't forget he writes his negative views about your house with that poop on your walls.
John II| 8.31.10 @ 2:39PM
As some day it may happen that a victim must be found,
I've got a little list--I've got a little list
Of society offenders who might well be underground
And who never would be missed--who never would be missed!
. . .
There's the banjo serenader, and the others of his race,
And the piano-organist--I've got him on the list!
And the people who eat peppermint and puff it in your face,
They never would be missed--they never would be missed!
Then the idiot who praises, with enthusiastic tone,
All centuries but this, and every country but his own . . .
Kris, in New England | 8.31.10 @ 3:25PM
I live in New England - born in MA and have lived in CT 27 of my 47 years. Even as a native who calls Boston her favorite city - I would never look at Boston and her suburbs as representative of the rest of America! Talk about insulated bubbles of priviledge and narcissism.
Even CT is better than Boston in these terms anyway.
NE Patriot| 8.31.10 @ 3:31PM
Hopefully Michael will be returning to his beloved Europe before Election Day. His elitist view on America can be published thanks to the courage and sacrifice of our military throughout the history of the New World. Otherwise, he might feel the boot of the Gestapo on his throat for his opinion. If we had to depend on the valor of the French to protect our liberties, we'd be in sad shape. Go back and enjoy your snobbery.
David| 8.31.10 @ 3:53PM
The author did say Boston was typical of the "educated", (also known as elitists) class.
I never watch Larry King, but I think the comment about the danger of texting and driving is pretty snotty. That is becoming a huge problem and it is not only younger folks who are doing it. People are dying everyday because of it. In my opinion is much worse than an experienced drinker getting on the road after 6 or 8 beers. One adult woman tried to explain to me how she couldn't stop herself from texting and driving because growing up with all the electronic gadgets, she now has ADHD. I look at all of the idiots who text and talk on cell phones and think, "wow, just flippin' important do you think you are that you can't be out of touch for 10 minutes". Kinda reminds me of Bam Bam and his Blackberry. All of you are egomaniacs.
Now for a cartoon: It said, "Honk if you love Jesus...............try texting while driving if you would like to meet Him".
Akaky| 8.31.10 @ 4:35PM
To: R. Emmett Tyrell
Memo: The Johnson Piece
Come on, guy, this is your version of the Monty Python upper class twit sketch, isn't it?
Joe D.| 8.31.10 @ 5:05PM
Being that you Europeans do not take care of your defense, we have to. I think we ought to stop and see how things go there without our help.
Joe D.| 8.31.10 @ 5:08PM
You keep your stupid socialized medicine over there. We don't want it here. As you let your people die since it is not cost effective to help them. I will take our cost and longer life.
Maddox| 8.31.10 @ 5:34PM
Mr. Johnson,
Maybe you should consider contacting the Obama administration to inquire about an appointment. Your experience and insight about America seem to fall in line with theirs. You could be quite useful for their purposes, you are quite clueless, they are conniving.
kingsmill| 8.31.10 @ 5:46PM
Wow, I've lived in Boston all my life and this guy is clueless. Brookline and Sudbury are bubbles within a bubble.
Get out to real neighborhoods Dorchester, South Boston, East Boston, West Roxbury or working and middle class suburbs Braintree, Quincy, Weymouth, Woburn, Reading.
Turn on WRKO radio, 1200 AM or 96.9...conservative radio all day long, with diversity of views.
This is one of the lamest pieces I've ever read. For a minute I thought I had a virus that was redirecting me to the Boston Globe website.
Michele San Pietro| 8.31.10 @ 5:58PM
Europe's healthcare system is far more measured and compassionate? Try telling the numerous people who die at hospitals in Southern Italy because of malpractice.
Rick| 8.31.10 @ 6:09PM
Well Michael have a nice time with your friends and family while you are in town. Sounds like the French got a hold of you and did quite a number. Dont let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way back to France. You are correct about one thing though, Larry King is oily.
Tarr| 8.31.10 @ 6:21PM
Monsieur Johnson, did you check in on Skippy Gates and make sure he has recovered from his run in with the unwashed Cambridge cops?
Also, how is your fellow Frenchman's (John Kerry) new yacht?
The Boston Public Library at Copley is packed on a daily basis with a ton of people. What bullcrap.
Is someone on vacation at the Spectator? Who let this drivel through?
Padoux| 8.31.10 @ 7:54PM
Are you sure you're an American? I detect the scent of French disdain for most things American. As an "educated" American, but a descendant of French and English heritage in south Louisiana, I doubt that the chic society in Boston is reflective of most Americans. I am not traveled so I cannot speak from personal history but from reading history I am not a big fan of the French, descendant or not. With rare exceptions they are arrogant but inept as far back as Agincourt when the silly fools were routed by the Brits. In WWII Hitler cut through them like knife through butter and they had to be liberated by guess who? Perhaps they live "better," who knowns but Americans are not French and if we were the Reich and/or the Stalinsts would have dominated the world. Fine food and wine do not defeat the bad guys.
mjfin| 8.31.10 @ 8:03PM
Akaky's post made the most sense to me. This collection of clichéd experiences is much too perfect a summary of progressive attitudes to have been generated by an actual human being. However, I am rarely surprised at the insular arrogance of educated liberals, with their blockhead dimwit's list of the character traits of my fellow citizens. For Mr. Johnson's sake I do hope he is pulling our leg. Somehow I doubt it.
MoeBlotz| 8.31.10 @ 8:21PM
Oy Michael,do us all a favour and return to Frog Land at your earliest convenience and leave us poor besotted Yanks to our perils.
JESUS FUAKA| 8.31.10 @ 9:43PM
Right on. Americans are fucking idiots.
TrickleUpPolitics| 8.31.10 @ 11:24PM
Yes, we speak of an unsustainable system: yours. You have too many people nearing retirement, and not enough young people coming up to support your pensions. Good luck with that.
TrickleUpPolitics| 8.31.10 @ 11:24PM
Jesus, are you an American?
Frog In Uniform| 8.31.10 @ 10:13PM
Mike, you must have seen a different France from the dump I live in... There's no such thing as a modus vivendi with muslims in Europe! Ask any European his opinion about islam (but avoid witnesses) and he'll tell you muslims and islam in general, have brought crime and disorder to our nations, and wrought havoc in every possible way. Islam is a disease and muslims are not totally responsible for the epidemy, we also have our own corrupt fooliticians to blame, including Jacques Chirac (better known as Al Jaqsheeraq, the first closet muslim president) that makes Hussein Obama look christian in comparison, and Nicolas Sarkozy who, despite his jewish ancestry, has done more to dhimmitize France than any state sponsored imam. We hate muslims' guts but not as much as they hate ours. For the time being, the police and the armed forces believe they control the situation, but it is obvious that a time will come when death squads of enraged citizens will roam the "cites sensibles" where no one dares cruise even in broad daylight.
Johnny Knuckles| 8.31.10 @ 11:15PM
There's only one Scrappleface, Mike.
Curt| 8.31.10 @ 11:33PM
President Obama was born in a muslim household to a muslim father, lived in a muslim country, and attended services at a mosque.
According to Islam, that makes him a muslim. According to Islam, I'm a heathen, he's a heretic.
voted against carter| 9.1.10 @ 12:12AM
Hey idiot.
PLEASE GO BACK TO france. We do not need any more progressive liberal dumbocrates as we have enough all ready thank you very much. As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a MAROON!!" Boston. creepin me out dude. So your flight back to france leaves when? You need a ride to the air port? Or can I get you a cab?
Doug| 9.1.10 @ 12:18AM
"I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries."
Kingofthenet| 9.1.10 @ 2:22AM
Your Right Mr.Johnson the vast majority of my fellow American are Stupid, in FACT the people you met in Boston are the ELITE, not the 'knuckle-draggers' who live in RED states. If you met those 'REAL' Americans you would swear someone is feeding vast swathes of the populous, 'stupid pills'Pretty sad state of affairs when the BEST and BRIGHTEST, look so insular and XENOPHOBIC compared to our European Friends. But seeing the CRAZINESS the election of the first Black President has caused, you can also add RACIST to the list of embarrassing behavior exhibited. One particularly AMERICAN nuisance I have noticed is rather than admit a deficit and try to improve ones shortcomings, there seems to be a 'doubling down' on a losing hand, embodied by the saying AMERICA...F YEAH!
Darren| 9.1.10 @ 5:30AM
For issues like this, the crowd in general should be consulted instead of experts. Crowds are much better at predicting something which has a % probability to happen.
Joe Blo| 9.1.10 @ 6:07AM
I'm from a small city in south Georgia (Waycross). Been livin' in Germany for about 15 years now. Agree with most of the criticisms of this article.
It seems to me that this is a plant, an article so shallow and dumb that the editors of The Spectator chose it for just the sort of reactions we see above. For example, why France? I find the French polite and pleasant people with good food, but they are relatively poor (at least in the cities near Germany and Belgium), needing EU handouts (meaning: paid for by Germany).
Why not focus on Germany? Would the comparison make The Spectator too uncomfortable? This is a society that works, literally and figuratively. Sure, moslems are a problem, as are different-looking immigrants everywhere, in every time. Visit Germany, walk around a city or drive around the country. Visit a hospital. You'll see what I mean.
One caveat: nobody comes here for the food.
JP| 9.1.10 @ 9:28AM
I spent considerable time in Germany. And the Germans suffer the same problems as France, Italy, and the UK. The nation is aging too rapidly; it cannot afford the public entitlements (even recent cut-backs are not enough); and one of the least talked about problems is a brain drain of its younger workers. Nations like Canada, Austrailia, New Zealand, South Africa, Argentena, and the US have long lines of skilled Germans awaiting work visas.
Danny Lemieux| 9.1.10 @ 8:50AM
I have lived in many European countries, including France. My experience is that it takes a minimum of 2 years of living in any country to start delving below surface impressions thereof and that is only if you are looking and learning. The same applies to Germany as applies to France or as applies to European visitor to the U.S.. On the surface, Germany looks great, especially when living the life of an American visitor in Europe on an American salary. Dig deeper, though, experience the vicissitudes of daily living...and you get a very different picture. As is clear from his comments, Mr. Johnson doesn't have a clue about what France is really like.
Joe Blo| 9.1.10 @ 9:35AM
Hi Danny,
I presume that by "American salary" you mean a professional-type salary, not a Wal-Mart salary. Life in the lower deciles is hard in most places, but I'd rather be on minimum wage in Germany than in the US. At least some basic needs of life are covered: you won't die for lack of health insurance, you won't have to live on the street, and your kids can go for vocational or university training.
I agree that a visit won't get you very far, especially if you don't know the language, but my suggestion was more to refute the assertion in many comments that Europeans don't know how to organize a society, or that people are hungry, or perhaps dying in the streets due to lack of US-style healthcare or Moslem attacks.
JP| 9.1.10 @ 9:48AM
You certainly haven't lived in Berlin or Munich. There are plenty of homeless there. And public housing in the urban areas is not much different from public housing in the US.
And I don't think you understand the public dole in the US. An unemployed man with a wife and say 3 children will receive HUD housing, Medicare (for him and his family); WIC, as well as monthy EBT cards (electronic food stamps that would pay out to a family of 5 about $1500/month). He will also recieve lost cost utilitiy rates (paid for out of HHS funds); and the last time I checked if he has college age children, they are eligable for thousands of dollars in Pell Grants. This idea that our poor are not taken care of is ridiculous.
Joe Blo| 9.1.10 @ 12:39PM
No, I haven't lived in Munich, and am surprised that there's a big homeless problem there. Berlin and the East I see as still being integrated after the long communist winter.
Thanks for the update on US welfare, my notions are out of date. But my example concerned someone making minimum wage, not someone unemployed; that's a straw-man argument.
Welfare for the down-and-out is fine, but it's how one treats those who have the worst of both worlds, both the discipline of work and the exhaustion of poverty. How does the US compare there? (I really don't know.)
In any case, it's those people that you really need to help, and I think that Europe overall does as well as the US (though comparisons are difficult, with lots of local differences in both).
Danny Lemieux| 9.1.10 @ 1:10PM
JP, one of the unfortunate realities of living among the lower income classes in virtually all of Europe (I except the U.K.) is that it is very difficult to move out of those ranks into higher income levels.
Thus far, the U.S. has offered far more mobility. There is also less incentive in the U.S. to stay in the lower-income classes for the very reasons you raise - unemployment and low-employment are not (or, at least, until recently were not) enabled by social welfare policies the way they are in Europe. A big problem is that Europeans are left with so little income after taxes with which to build their own capital base. The cost of real estate is so high that it is very difficult for Europeans to buy their own homes and thereby start building equity.
As far as the homeless are concerned, you will have absolutely no trouble finding them in Brussels or Paris either.
Danny Lemieux| 9.1.10 @ 1:15PM
Sorry, not JP but JB.
JimP| 9.1.10 @ 3:36PM
When will you be moving to the Fatherland, JB? It sounds swell.
JimP| 9.1.10 @ 3:37PM
My goof. I see now that you are already there. Mea culpa.
JP| 9.1.10 @ 9:42AM
In Germany in particular, thier vast public bureaucracy works against reform. If one lived as a native in Germany, and was fortunate to find employment, he could expect 55% taxes on his payroll, apartments that cost upward of $180,o00 (most Germans but apartments. Rentals are as expensive as the average apartment in Manhatten); fuel costs are upwards of $7 a gallon; food is about 20% more expensive; and even public transportation isn't cheap. Most younger people live at home. And even purchasing a used car is problematic, as the TUV vehicle inspections force car owners to sink thousands of dollars in repairs (the Germans do not allow junk on thier highways).
Yes, the mandatory vacations, the paying of 13 months of work for 12 (the Germans get paid once a month. And the unions forced all businesses to pay thier workers 13 paychecks a year), the "free health care"; the free university education (for those few who are smart enough, and who attended the elite Gymnasiums); and thier technical schools are outstanding. But all of those benefits have driven millions of jobs overseas (sound familiar). So, if you are 26 year old German with a Diploma of Engineering Certificate (equivelant of a Masters Degree), you spend what cash you have trying to get into firms in South America, North America, or Asia. No matter what skills you possess, it is just too expensive to employ you. And forget about forming you own business. The costs for start ups are too high.
Joe Blo| 9.1.10 @ 12:42PM
"In Germany in particular, thier vast public bureaucracy works against reform."
So I take it, then, that the US government has the opposite characteristics. Is this what you are saying?
JP| 9.1.10 @ 1:07PM
Nope. When one considers that the Federal Government consumes more than $3 trillion of a $12 trillion economy, and employs hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats to regulate it, both nations are very similar.
David March| 9.1.10 @ 5:30PM
Yes lets talk about the diversity of France, what with 36000 elected mayors only 3 of them were non-whites in 2008. And one black in the National assembly.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....02049.html
Pierce| 9.1.10 @ 11:34PM
Give Scott Brown a break! He is doing the best he can in Kennedy country. I moved out of the Masshole state in 09, after living there for 17 years. Also, half of my family is in that state and they are brainwashed by the ruling class. Remember, he "VOTED" against the nomination of Elena Kagan for the Supreme Court. That takes courage in that state. Michael, my dear friend, if you want to give the readers of this website an alternative viewpoint to the brie and chardonnay crowd in the hub, point them to the website of AM680 and to the Howie Carr show. There they can get the real deal on the Bay state. That and the Boston Herald can give them the media nutrition they need.
Mike Hamilton| 9.15.10 @ 4:48PM
The tendency of Europeans to infancy in adulthood seems to be contagious to expats. I find the educated class to be naive and true believers in secular humanism. They evidently learned nothing from the evils of the two great secular humanists civilizations of the 20th century which is also true of a fairly large number, although a minority of Americans.
Christian Louboutin | 6.23.11 @ 5:42AM
Of course one must be cautious in comparing civilizations but the peculiarities of the United States leap out at you -- ils sautent aux yeux, as the French say, they jump at your eyes.