--- Ken Provost <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> A buddy at work (jewish, socialist, New Yorker, so yeah he's
> probly a little AHEAD of the curve) was speculating that U.S.
> would be at war with Europe within 15 years. Another fellow
> asked if that would be just France, but he said he figgered
> all of Europe would be together in it.
>
> I was thinking at the time that U.S. has already LOST the war
> with Europe, but what do I know?
>
> Anyway, since there's some Europeans here, and the putative
> war would probly be about OIL (or paying for it with euros
> instead of dollars), I thought this forum might have some
> light to shed on Fred's idea...... -K
Please note my following comments refer primarily to the _political_
systems in place, not individuals from each region of the world!
I think we can safely say that Europe and America have been at war with
each other for a very long time - mainly over trade issues, but in the
bigger picture over cultural and environmental issues too. From the
European side of the equation, America is seen as acting primarily to
exert and maintain its power over the rest of the world through its de
facto monopolies and trade policies - which serve only to enrich
America even further. America's (i.e. governmental, not individual
Americans') attitude to environmental issues (such as the Kyoto
protocol) suggest that they don't care about the rest of the world. The
fact that America goes its own way in so many areas of technology
(mobile phone standards, NTSC vs PAL in TV standards for example) is
cited as evidence of protectionist policies that effectively only allow
American companies to compete in the particular market sector. The way
contracts have been awarded in Iraq following the war has also raised
questions about 'jobs for the boys' as the large American companies
have ended up winning the contracts, by and large.
As far as oil and energy are concerned, here in the UK most people do
see 'the Middle East situation' as being largely as a result of
America's quest to control the oil reserves, but with Europe also
playing their part. If you look at each nation's energy consumption per
capita, America uses roughly twice as much as European nations (source:
the Economist, I could dig out detailed figures). Other nations
generally come much lower, although there are exceptions. This is often
considered to be evidence of America's profligacy. Other considerations
include the pump price of motor fuel. If crude oil prices double, the
percentage increase in pump prices is much higher in America than in
Europe, simply because Americans pay vastly less fuel tax than
Europeans. So here there is much less of a focus on oil prices than in
America, although there are groups who used recent high prices to
threaten strike action and the government eventually backed down from a
proposed tax increase on fuel. Because Europe is very congested, high
fuel prices serve a very important secondary purpose in discouraging
people from over-using their cars. If the prices were to drop to
American prices, people would be happy for about a day before they
realised that everyone was using their cars more and the road system
would grind to a total halt. Most would then ask for the prices to go
back up!
My impression is that individual Americans come up with a vast number
of great ideas, but are trapped in a political system that doesn't
allow most of them to thrive. Big businesses with vested interests see
to it that the government at the time (whether Republican or Democrat)
never implement any policies that would upset them. By big business I
mean companies like the oil companies, Microsoft, the motor
manufacturers, even Coca Cola and McDonalds. The political parties both
have too much to lose by upsetting these companies.
I'd be interested on the American perspective of the above issues - how
do Americans perceive Europeans over the above issues?
Regards,
Donald
=====
--
43 - slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
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