How come conservatives never look at Europe?

Question

Europeans have higher standards of living. They have free health care, better roads, better education, and some countries have higher average salaries. There is no obesity epidemic there, there is a far lower crime rate, less people are killed in accidents each year, the air is cleaner. The average European makes the average American look like a moron with their higher IQ averages. Why is it so much better? I'll tell you the answer, everyone is more liberal. Liberal in America is considered moderate in Europe. Conservative in Europe is considered moderate in America. If everyone in America was more Liberal things would be much better.

Answer 1

I wouldn't call my taxs 'sky high'...and it beats having a Poverty ratio that would stun any other First World nation.

Meh, let Americans keep their 'low tax's. Im happy to be European

Answer 2

To a large extent, european policies, in comparison with US ones, hurt both the rich and the poor and benefit the middle class. If you're a white european with a decent job, you've got it for life and good government progams too. If you wanted more then that, move to the US. If you're an immigrant living in a parisian slum, if you think any employer will give you a full time job when they'd never be able to let you go if things don't work out, good luck. The simplest way to help 'poor working' people is to remove any competition from even poorer unemployed people. European unemployment rates are much higher then the US, and income mobility is lower. Furthermore - like the US - most of them are going to be facing severe funding issues for their social security net as their population ages.

Health care may be 'free' in many european countries, but most also allow private care as well.

There are advantages to both places. The grass is so often greener though, isn't it?

Answer 3

I think you exaggerate Europe's virtues and forget about all of its serious problems. There are certainly some advantages, and the health system is an area in which we would probably be in agreement. However, the very high rates of dependence on government support, of unemployment, and the like have greatly slowed European economies and are quite controversial in every nation in Europe. Birth rates have dropped off precipitously, leaving them facing a demographic crisis with profound effects on pensions, etc., that are far worse (and will become far worse) than anything we will experience in the US. Despite your claims, Europe struggles with pollution and crime like any developed region, and your comments on good roads suggest that you have never visited the countryside in southern Europe. Although car accidents are less common (due probably to lower rates of car ownership), accidents in Europe are more commonly fatal than in the US, due apparently to higher speeds and some truly appalling driving habits in some places. The Europeans are grappling with immigration problems that are the same as or worse than those the US deals with. They have ongoing conflict over trying to merge into the EU while each struggles to prop up and promote its own government-owned companies -- which are themselves known for inefficiency and corruption.

You are also simply wrong about Europeans' politics. This "liberal" continent has given the world inquisitions, concentration camps, communism, fascism, colonialism, Nazi-ism, and the like, and neo-Nazi and affiliated movements are still going strong there. The Europeans preach to us about human rights, while none of them have the same free speech rights that our Constitution guarantees (hence the popularity of libel suits in England when they can't be won here). Racism and xenophobia are easy to find in almost every European country, and mal-adapted immigrant populations have caused them more trouble than just the riots in France last year. The Europeans talk up globalism at the same time that they refuse to end the world's largest farmer subsidies, which effectively keeps the poor farmers of Africa and Asia out of European markets. The liberal utopia that you imagine simply does not exist. Europeans have problems and varying opinions just like other mortals do.

You and I might agree on some things, but this uninformed glorification of Europe is sheer rubbish. Whatever your point is, you should find some other way to try to make it. This argument just doesn't hold up to the pressure of facts.

Answer 4

Real conservatives here are the richest people in America, so they're not interested in raising taxes on the rich or improving the standard of living for average Americans. They represent at most the top 5% of the population but they've taken control by conning many in the middle class into thinking that they're conservative too! I've got a friend who lives with a woman but isn't married to her, loves to drink, mostly at strip clubs and he does all kinds of things that conservatives would disapprove of, but he thinks he's a conservative. He's typical of many who think they're conservative in America.

Answer 5

For one thing, we do look at Europe. For another thing, every thing you said is wrong. We have a higher standard of living. There is no such thing as "free" healthcare. They do not have better roads, education, or salaries. Ok, I'll give you the obesity thing. Their crime rates are the same, or higher. Thier unemployment is much higher (average 9% across Europe, vs 4.7% for us). Their IQ is not higher.

The biggest difference between the U.S. and Europe is that they are largely socialist, and we aren't quite there yet. As long as we have freedom, we will continue to be better. In another 20 years, or so, when we are as socialist as Europe, then we'll have all the same problems.

Modern liberalism endorses socialism, which is slavery. If you want to be a slave, that's fine with me, go live in Europe. I prefer to be free, so leave my freedoms alone.

Answer 6

LOL. I think you need to look up some more information regarding the European economy. You know little things like unemployment rate, percent of growth, when you say they're more educated does that include the immigrant slums? Did you know that most European Countries are in violation of both the EU economic rules and the Kyoto protocal? Europe is wonderful, but it's not Utopia.

Answer 7

Let's look at the high unemployment. The ones who do get employed may get higher wages, but they pay out a greater percent of it in higher taxes.

Perhaps you never saw how the non-peoples (the Africans and Arabs) live and are treated.

They have been able to spend more of their money on socialist crap because America has been protecting them for 60 years, financially supporting them through NATO and by maintaining bases there. It was with US money that most of them were rebuilt after the war, from England to Greece.

So, yeah, they can claim all sorts of stuff, but they ungraciously and unceasingly fail to acknowledge that all they have now is due to the toil and sweat and generosity of us 'morons'.

But I wouldn't put too much faith in their socialist states - they have started to run out of other peoples' money.

Answer 8

Their economies dont grow, and the taxes are twice what ours are. The only ones in europe that are growing at the moment are Ireland and some of the old Easter Bloc countries that have instituted flat taxes (conservative idea mmmm). Heck even Russia come up with a flat tax. Maybe we should look to them and not to "old" europe.

Answer 9

Yeah, and they tax the rich much more than they do the working stiffs.

Which is why we'll never have that here. Big business will never let that happen.

Answer 10

I didn't know that orcs know the difference between liberals and conservatives.