Okay, a book review. This author seems to belive Europe will overtake America economically. Does anyone have an opinion?
NONFICTION
Journalist T.R. Reid takes a provocative look at what the continent's drive to unification could mean to America
Sunday, January 02, 2005
JEFF MAPES
Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., probably thought he was tossing off an easy attack line during the 2004 presidential campaign when he accused Democrat John Kerry of being suspiciously disposed toward Europe.
"It's not John Kerry's fault that he looks French," Smith said. "But it is his fault that he wants to pursue policies that have us act like the French. He advocates all kinds of additional socialism at home (and) appeasement abroad."
Smith's comments triggered a wave of supportive letters to the editor criticizing Europe's lack of military gumption and its nanny-state leanings.
But there was also an intriguing strain of criticism from voters -- undoubtedly those who helped power Kerry to his win in Oregon -- who were quite vociferous in defending Europe.
Why can't the United States provide the same health coverage to all its citizens, they wondered. And what's wrong with working through international bodies instead of rushing off to war?
How you feel about Europe, it turns out, is yet another one of those litmus tests that divides -- dare we say it again? -- red- and blue-state America.
And now veteran journalist T.R. Reid offers a view of Europe that ought to be provocative to Americans on either side of our own political divide.
In the "United States of Europe: The New Superpower and the End of American Supremacy," Reid argues that Americans have largely failed to realize the depth of the continent's drive to unification.
It's not just that Europe has its own common market and, in most countries, a single currency. It's that European countries are continuing to surrender a surprising amount of their sovereignty in virtually all areas of their life -- and that Europe's successful young people are increasingly seeing themselves as European rather than Danish or German or even French.
Just as Winston Churchill once advocated, Europe truly is creating its own United States, one that seems destined to be as tightly bound together as our 50 states. Europe now has its own constitution, parliament, government bureaucracy and court system.
Europeans have created the world's largest economy, one we can't ignore. Its regulators have jettisoned the mergers of American companies, determined what kinds of crops American farmers can grow, forced changes in U.S. tax laws and even dictated the size of our liquor bottles, which now are in milliliters.
Europe may not be much of a competitor when it comes to military might. But Europeans, determined to abandon their war-wracked history, don't fret about that much. They're less interested in "hard power" and more determined to wield the "soft power" of economics, diplomacy and foreign aid.
"We need to recognize and accept the plain fact that the planet has a second superpower now, and that its global influence will continue to increase," writes Reid, whose book is an outgrowth of his reporting as the London bureau chief of the Washington Post.
In pursuit of this theme, Reid describes how American business titans such as former General Electric Chairman Jack Welch were blindsided by Europe's willingness to derail his company's merger with Honeywell, or in how Airbus came to outsell Boeing.
Sen. Smith, and conservative economists, would no doubt say Reid fails to devote enough attention to Europe's economic weaknesses, such as its continuing high unemployment rate.
But Reid makes a compelling argument that Europe can afford its welfare state -- a term that is not a pejorative to most Europeans -- at least in part because it does not have to devote nearly as much of its GNP to military spending (thanks in part to the protection of the U.S. military).
Reid also argues that Europe's government-paid health care system -- as unsatisfactory as it may be to Americans -- is turning into a competitive advantage. Companies are freed of the rising costs of paying for their employees' health care, and Europe covers everyone for less cost and with better health outcomes than in the United States.
The rise of Europe may cause some problems for America. The euro, which continues to strengthen against the dollar, could replace the greenback as the world's preferred currency. The U.S. may no longer find it so easy to finance its trade and budget deficits.
But Europe also is an increasingly rich market for American products and services, and it can often be an important security ally. Set aside the bitterness over Iraq for a moment. Instead, consider that Europe has now suffered more combat deaths in Afghanistan than America.
As the European story continues to filter into the consciousness of Americans, it also seems likely to help fuel our own debate about the direction the U.S. should take.
That slender majority that gave George W. Bush another term in office is likely to continue to see Europe as an object of derision. (Even if, oddly enough, Smith is a devoted fan of French-cut suits, Scottish golf and Italian sports cars.) And those dejected blue-staters will be likely to point even more vociferously to Europe as a role model to follow.
Meanwhile, Europe is engaged in its own love-hate relationship with the United States. Europeans love much of what our country produces, from movies to McDonalds. But, Reid says, one of the very things unifying Europeans is what they see as the barbarity of our culture, from our continued use of the death penalty to our pre-emptive war in Iraq.
That may sound too French for many Americans. But Reid makes a compelling argument that those who are content to dismiss Europe -- perhaps while dishing up a serving of "freedom fries" -- do so at their own peril.
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