>>>>>Rahter than (too easily) blame it on my percepted negative view, I'd challenge you to fight the reasoning rather than the person telling you.
>>>>
>>>>The economy has been precarious for years. There is information going back to the 80s and 90s pointing to this occurring. Really. Just for grins and giggles, I pulled some interesting stuff:
>>>>
>>>>http://www.economic-policy.org/special_us_panel.asp
>>>>http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/aug2008/gb2008081_148006.htm?campaign_id=rss_eu
>>>>http://archives.tcm.ie/irishexaminer/2008/01/25/story53496.asp
>>>>http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2006/05/musical_chairs.html
>>>>http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2004/09/weak_european_p.html
>>>>http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3550247.html
>>>>
>>>>Not interested in the other argument though Walter. I thought you were intelligent enough to get it yourself. Just not interested in it today. Perhaps another day...
>>>
>>>I'm not intelligent/sidekick enough to see what your reasoning is behind a blunt statement. I guess you still don't get it that the pessimistic european want to contrast the optimistic american, and beyond that educate the ones about the world outside who never saw it, but are making blunt statements.
>>
>>On one hand, we have the American pundits saying that the EU is wrong for doing everything wrong, i.e. doing everything differently from the US - having the workers' unions in place, having more than two weeks of vacation, working less than 40 hours a week, having a minimal wage on which one can actually live, having environmental protection in place which should have completely ruined the industry (but somehow still didn't, but surely will, any day now)... while on the other hand they claim that the US productivity is the result of plain technological advancement, while it's actually a result of dividing the income by domestic working hours - or even the value of produced goods at MSRP price, not the average market price, who'd know - not counting how much of the work is actually done abroad, how many of the non-unemployed are just "not in the workforce anymore" etc etc.
>>
>>And on the other hand, is there any such list of articles written by the other side? I'd like to see a view from the other side.
>
>On the other hand we have most American pundits saying that the EU is right for doing everything right, i.e. doing everything differently from the US - getting handed more than two weeks of vacation simply for being hired, mandating a work week less than 40 hours, forcing employers to pay way over the actual value of the work ensuring high youth unemployment, mandating that companies subscirbe to fictional global warming policies and treaties like Kyoto while having no success in actually adheering to the agreed levels...while on the other hand they claim that the Euro Zone is an unmitigated success without having weathered a single downturn, attempting to repackage the repeatedly voted down Euro Constitution over and over to the point that they've actually removed the concept of a vote of the people from the process because they know what's best.

And what is wrong with this?? Your comments please??