Europe Overtakes North America As Richest Region In the World

[Machjo]

The problem is that while a it takes a high-tech military to destroy a nation, it cakes a military skilled in hearts and minds campaigns to control a nation.

Bombing the hell out of a country is an effective way to destroy it, but if the goal to to help the people, then all the techie gadgets will only help so much.

 

[Spade]

In Canada, we're all wannabe Europeans. Must be our adolescence...

 

[L Gilbert]

I doubt carbon use has much to do with having more "riches". It our "painted rust" infrastructure, loss of nearly all manufacturing, high cost of living, diminishing health and education standard and most of all personal and corporate greed over the past 30 years has led to this downfall of the once great America.

Pretty much.
As far as military might goes, who gives a crap when not many are aggressive? Seems the smaller groups are aggressive and the larger ones only react to that. Other than that it's just a pissing match.

 

[L Gilbert]

In Canada, we're all wannabe Europeans. Must be our adolescence...

Not all of us.

 

[Spade]

Not all of us.

Then there are at least two of us!

 

[Machjo]

Make that three.

I like Europeans, but I see no reason at the moment to immigrate to Europe.

 

[L Gilbert]

Make that three.

I like Europeans, but I see no reason at the moment to immigrate to Europe.

I like people but I'm not into copycatting to be like other people. However, some European countries seem to have their shyte together a lot better than we in NorthAm.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

In Canada, we're all wannabe Europeans. Must be our adolescence...

Spade, I think we Canadians cannot make up our mind whether we are Europeans or Americans. Some of us look wistfully at European progressivism, but also are influenced by American Puritanism. We would like to be progressive like the Europeans, but we cannot really shake off the Puritan in us.

If you look at many issues (taxation, prostitution, public decency etc.), Canada’s policies fall somewhere in between the conservative policies of USA and liberal policies of Europe.

Even our administrative system tends to fall in between the two. Thus in USA they have Social Security Number, in UK they have National Insurance Number. We have Social Insurance Number.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

Make that three.

I like Europeans, but I see no reason at the moment to immigrate to Europe.

I don’t think you will like it in Europe, Machjo. Cars are smaller, houses are smaller (and much more expensive than here), roads are smaller. Taxes are high, the place is crowded and living conditions in general are cramped.

Only the wealthy people in Europe can afford the average 3 or 4 bedroom house in North America.

 

[Machjo]

We can't deny though that most of North American culture is Europeanized to a considerable degree none-the-less. Even our institutions. Parliament, the Queen, The Union Jack in the Ontario Flag, God Save the Queen, our membership in the Commonwealth and the Fancophonie, our history lessons and texbooks, the study of Shakespear and de Maupassant, etc. in school.

Our culture is European for the most part with a hint of the local indigenous cultures, and of course adapted to our environment.

 

[Machjo]

I don’t think you will like it in Europe, Machjo. Cars are smaller, houses are smaller (and much more expensive than here), roads are smaller. Taxes are high, the place is crowded and living conditions in general are cramped.

Only the wealthy people in Europe can afford the average 3 or 4 bedroom house in North America.

They've learnt to make efficient use of their resources. I'd lived in China before, so I'm used to all of that.

And honestly, I preferred it that way. Everything was close by. Here in Canada, you need to travel an hour to get anywhere.

 

[ironsides]

I don’t think you will like it in Europe, Machjo. Cars are smaller, houses are smaller (and much more expensive than here), roads are smaller. Taxes are high, the place is crowded and living conditions in general are cramped.

Only the wealthy people in Europe can afford the average 3 or 4 bedroom house in North America.

You make Europe sound so wonderful. :roll:

 

[ironsides]

"A new report on global wealth says that Europe has overtaken the United States to become the richest region in the world."

Of course Europe has done things a lot better than the United States and Canada (you are not European no matter what some say). The main thing is that they have pretty much embraced nuclear energy, upgraded their power grids. What do we do, of course we still have old hydroelectric generators and of course continue to burn coal and oil, use a power grid from 1900 era. Anytime a company wants to build a new nuclear power plant, we throw so many road blocks in front of them that they give up. Those other so called clean power sources do not produce enough. Some say we should cut back, why? It will just cost us money to make the improvements. Europe had a good and necessary reason for updating everything because it was destroyed during WW-II. You are also comparing the economies of 50-60 countries of various sizes to the U.S. which is starting to recover from a economic disaster. So called "Smart Cars" tiny, not good for family, not smart, Building smaller homes, unless your retired not to good if you intend to raise a family. I personally would just not get in our way. To a couple of you I say the U.S. is not dead.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

They've learnt to make efficient use of their resources. I'd lived in China before, so I'm used to all of that.

And honestly, I preferred it that way. Everything was close by. Here in Canada, you need to travel an hour to get anywhere.

Oh, I don’t mean to put down the European way of life, Machjo, far from it. I think that is the right way to live. It is more efficient, consumes fewer resources, it also teaches you tolerance. Or rather, tolerance is forced upon you, in North America you have to learn it.

But being used to North American way of life, you may not like it there.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

You make Europe sound so wonderful. :roll:

Europe is wonderful, ironsides. Having lived in Britain for seven years and having visited most of European countries (on business or vacation), I think Europe is a great place. It is just that the way of life is different over there and we North Americans may not appreciate it (although I enjoyed our stay in Britain immensely).

 

[Machjo]

Oh, I don’t mean to put down the European way of life, Machjo, far from it. I think that is the right way to live. It is more efficient, consumes fewer resources, it also teaches you tolerance. Or rather, tolerance is forced upon you, in North America you have to learn it.

But being used to North American way of life, you may not like it there.

How so? In Canada, I've always preferred living downtown over suburbs. More convenient and more 'human', not so sterile as in the suburbs. Suburbs truly are God's curse on humanity. In fact, I remember living in the town centre of one town with population 20,000, and I didn't mind it at all. Downtown is downtown, regardless whether it's Montreal or La Malbaie. Suburbs are no-mans' lands though, a truly North American parasite.

 

[dumpthemonarchy]

The EU is richer than Canada and the US, they do not include countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria or Albania. Euroland is the slangy term for the EU. But still, this is some accomplishment as the media spoke of Eurosclerosis for many years. So much for that.

The US sags due to a hangover from go-go capitalism. I mean, go-go girls are great, but they went overboard in the Excited States of America.

Europe leads by luck and default. They have the best soccer leagues which gathers so much media attention and they use the metric system. So they always seem in synch with the world in popular and small ways.

 

[L Gilbert]

Considering the increase in Muslim population, maybe they are why Europe is taking over as the richest region.

 

[SirJosephPorter]

The EU is richer than Canada and the US, they do not include countries like Ukraine, Bulgaria or Albania. Euroland is the slangy term for the EU. But still, this is some accomplishment as the media spoke of Eurosclerosis for many years. So much for that.

The US sags due to a hangover from go-go capitalism. I mean, go-go girls are great, but they went overboard in the Excited States of America.

Europe leads by luck and default. They have the best soccer leagues which gathers so much media attention and they use the metric system. So they always seem in synch with the world in popular and small ways.

Another reason may be that Europe does not spend huge amounts on defense (being the only superpower, USA has to). So they can use the money for more constructive purposes.

 

[YukonJack]

"Another reason may be that Europe does not spend huge amounts on defense (being the only superpower, USA has to). So they can use the money for more constructive purposes."

Because these European super-chickens rely on the United States for military protection.

Same as Canada.