difference between america and europe?

Question

whats the difference between politics in america and europe? the only one i can find is that here, theres no nationalized healthcare. schools are generally nationalized, and theres plenty of welfare to subsidize drug addicts. in america, like many european nations, pension for the elderly is getting harder and harder to pay. and even now under bush's tax cuts, taxes are high enough to screw the middle class in the US. i would say america is already socialist...

Answer 1

Europe is looking to the future.

America is trying to relive an imaginary past.

European policy is based on economics, sociology, science.

American policy is based on cowboy movies written in Hollywood in the 1950s.

European governments are trying to make their countries better places for ordinary people.

The American government is trying to make the contry a better place for multimillionaires at the expense of ordinary people.

European governments are based on openness and honesty.

American government is based on secrecy and lies.

Europe has ambitions and dreams.

America has fear.

Answer 2

The political discourse in Europe is a lot less polarized. The existence of public broadcasters prevents corporate interests from easily setting the tone and a wider diversity of opinions make it to the airways, which politicians have to contend with.

Europeans are less isolationist in their world view. Something like the war on Iraq would be hard to imagine there, because people have much more of an interest in the world around there and have less of a tendency to see things from a good guy/bad guy, black/white perspective. There is more subtelty, for that reason, in the disocurse of politicians.

In Europe, socialism isn't necessarily a dirty word. Corporate influence is not nearly as deeply felt and ideas from a wider political spectrum make their ways into the parties. This, in part, explains why Europeans have more parties and why they are spread on a wider area of the spectrum. Defense is not nearly as important an issue, and American-style militarism would probably be met with ridicule. Most people would rather vote for better schools and hospitals than more and better weapons.

Most European political systems have more balance than in America. The President of the United States has a tremendous amount of power. European presidents must typically contend with mixed party systems, find themselves in a minority more often and generally have to make more compromises.

There are more, but these are the ones I can think of right off the top of my head.

Answer 3

Europe is like the older father. They've had a lot of mistakes in the past and raise their kids right, but the damn kid just won't learn from the dad's experiences. Europe has money, UHC, etc. while America whines like a child and tries to bully everyone. Unfortunately, I think that we're going to get a drunken brawl and someone has to go :(

Answer 4

One difference I know of is that Europe is more interested in science and less interested in pandering to religious fanatics.
But be smart, it's really silly to throw around the word "socialist." No country in Western Europe of even Eastern Europe now is like the old Soviet Union was or Cuba or any real socialist country.

Answer 5

How hard is this for people understand. TAX CUTS HELP EVERYONE. The middle class got tax cuts. Have you looked at the stock market lately 13,907 another record high? What about the lowest unemployment in 20+ years. Everything about the economy is great. The only reason think the economy is bad is because the media tells them that. Oh ya, and check out how the government is receiving record income to the government. The deficit is going down.

Answer 6

You have no idea what real socialism is about and we have one of the least tax burdens in the world. You are pissing and moaning now, wait until you see the tax bill of a true socialist nation. England is at about 70%. Makes ya think dont it?

Answer 7

America is not socialist at all.