The European Dream

by Jeremy Rifkin

  And finally, there is the question of personal accountability, America’s strength and Europe’s soft spot. Europe can attempt to legislate its dream. It can issue directives, sign global agreements, set up task forces, and establish benchmarks. That’s pretty much what it is already doing. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a sign of Europe’s commitment to fulfilling its new dream. But if the personal sense of accountability and responsibility is not deep enough and thick enough to weather the inevitable storms that will accompany the new journey, then, all of the legislative and executive actions and intellectual support notwithstanding, the European Dream will fail.

  My biggest concern, having spent nearly twenty years of my life working in both Europe and America, is whether Europeans’ sense of hope is sufficient to the task of sustaining a new vision for the future. Dreams require optimism, a sense that one’s hopes can be fulfilled. Americans are flush with hope and optimism, Europeans are less so, as a people. Still, they are guardedly hopeful about their new union. And the public opinion surveys show that a younger generation is measured in its optimism. Perhaps that’s all we can or should expect. The kind of unexamined optimism that has been so characteristic of the American Spirit has not always served us well. In a world of increasing global threats, tempered enthusiasm, balanced against a realistic assessment of risks, might be more appropriate. But there’s also a deep pessimistic edge ingrained in the European persona—understandable, I guess, after so many misbegotten political and social experiments, and so much carnage over so many centuries of history. Failures can dash hopes. But they can also make a people stronger, more resilient, and wise. Overcoming cynicism for Europeans is going to be as difficult and challenging as we Americans overcoming our naïve optimism. Still, no dream, regardless of how attractive it might be, can succeed in an atmosphere clouded by pessimism and cynicism.

  At the risk of ruffling feathers on both sides of the Atlantic, perhaps there are lessons to share. We Americans might be more willing to assume a collective sense of responsibility for our fellow human beings and the Earth we live on. Our European friends might be more willing to assume a sense of personal accountability in their individual dealings in the world. We Americans might become more circumspect and tempered in our outlook, while Europeans might become more hopeful and optimistic in theirs. By sharing the best of both dreams, we may be in better stead to make the journey together into a third stage of human consciousness.

  These are tumultuous times. Much of the world is going dark, leaving many human beings without clear direction. The European Dream is a beacon of light in a troubled world. It beckons us to a new age of inclusivity, diversity, quality of life, deep play, sustainability, universal human rights, the rights of nature, and peace on Earth. We Americans used to say that the American Dream is worth dying for. The new European Dream is worth living for.

  NOTES

  CHAPTER 1: THE SLOW DEATH OF THE AMERICAN DREAM

  1 Decker, Jeffrey Louis. Made in America: Self-Styled Success from Horatio Alger to Oprah Winfrey . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. p. 92.

  2 Ibid. pp. 154-155.

  3 Ibid.

  4 Miller, Perry. Errand into the Wilderness. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1984. p. 11; Winthrop, John. “A Model of Christian Charity.” 1630.

  5 Cullen, Jim. The American Dream. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. p. 24.

  6 Morgan, Edmund S., ed. The Diary of Michael Wigglesworth, 1653-1657. New York: Harper, 1965. p. 8.

  7 Melville, Herman. White-Jacket; Or, the World in a Man-of-War. (1850) Oxford, U.K.: Oxford Press (Oxford World’s Classics), 2000. ch. 36.

  8 “Americans Struggle with Religion’s Role at Home and Abroad.” Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. March 20, 2002. www.people-press.org

  9 Ibid.

  10 Ibid.

  11 “Spirituality and Faith Undergird and Motivate Americans to a Surprising Degree: News-Release.” The Gallup Organization. March 4, 2003. www.gallup.org

  12 Gallup, George H. Jr., and Byron R. Johnson. “Religion & Values: New Index Tracks ‘Spiritual State of the Union.’ ” The Gallup Organization. January 28, 2003. www.gallup.org

  13 “American Values: A Survey of Americans on Values.” The Washington Post/Kaiser/Harvard Survey Project. September 1998. www.kff.org/content/archive/1441/values.html

  14 “Religion & Politics: The Ambivalent Majority.” The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. September 20, 2000. www.people-press.org/reports

  15 “American Values: A Survey of Americans on Values.” The Washington Post/Kaiser/Harvard Survey Project.

  16 Robison, Jennifer. “Religion & Values: The Devil and the Demographic Details.” The Gallup Organization. February 25, 2003. www.gallup.com

  17 Ibid.

  18 Ibid.

  19 Ibid.

  20 Brooks, Deborah Jordan. “Substantial Numbers of Americans Continue to Doubt Evolution as Explanation for Origin of Humans.” The Gallup Organization. March 5, 2001. www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr

  21 “Public Favorable to Creationism.” The Gallup Organization. February 14, 2001. www.gallup.com/poll/releases/pr

  22 “Poll: 40 Percent of Americans Believe in Apocalyptic End.” DayWatch. March 25, 1999.

  23 Leland, John. “Afterlife for Everyone: Heaven Comes Down to Earth.” The New York Times. December 21, 2003.

  24 “Among Wealthy Nations U.S. Stands Alone in Its Embrace of Religion.” The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. December 19, 2002. www.people-press.org

  25 Ibid.

  26 Ibid.; Inglehart, Ronald. “Cultural Cleavages in the European Union.” Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan. 2002.

  27 Inglehart, Ronald. “Cultural Cleavages in the European Union.”

  28 “Among Wealthy Nations U.S. Stands Alone in Its Embrace of Religion.” The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.

  29 Ferguson, Niall. “Why America Outpaces Europe (Clue: The God Factor.)” The New York Times. June 8, 2003.

  30 Ibid.

  31 Ibid.

  32 Inglehart, Ronald. 1990 World Values Survey. Table 2-2. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, 1990.

  33 Ibid.

  34 Smith, Tom W., and Lars Jarkko. “National Pride in Cross-National Perspective.” National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago. April 2001.

  35 “Living with a Superpower.” The Economist. January 4, 2003.

  36 “What the World Thinks in 2002.” Pew Global Attitudes Project. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 2002.

  37 Lipset, Seymour Martin. American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York: Norton, 1996. p. 20.

  38 “Views of a Changing World.” The Pew Global Attitudes Project. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. June 2003.

  39 Ibid.

  40 Ibid.

  41 “What the World Thinks in 2002.” Pew Global Attitudes Project.

  42 Hastings, Elizabeth Hawn, and Phillip K. Index to International Public Opinion, 1988-1989. New York: Greenwood Press, 1990. p. 612.

  43 “Newsweek Poll—750 Adults Nationwide.” Princeton Survey Research Associates. June 24-25, 1999.

  44 Ibid.

  45 Ibid.

  46 Ibid.

  47 Lasch, Christopher. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations . New York: Norton, 1979. pp. 30, 33.

  48 “Gambling in America.” The Gallup Organization. May 7, 2003. www.gallup.com

  49 Berenson, Alex. “The States Bet Bigger on Betting.” The New York Times. May 18, 2003.

  50 Ibid.

  51 Ibid.

  52 Ibid.

  53 “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Changing Conceptions of the American Dream.” American Studies Online. February 13, 2003. p. 5. www.americansc.org.uk

  54 Ibid.

  55 Ibid.; Michael J. Sandel. “The Hard Questions: Bad Bet State Lotteries Are Sho
oting Craps with the Lives of the Poor.” The New Republic. March 10, 1997. p. 27.

  56 “National Gambling Impact Study Commission Final Report.” National Gambling Impact Study Commission. 1999. govinfo.library.unt.edu. May 9, 2003.

  57 Ibid.

  58 “Reality Television Show Directory.” Reality TV Links. www.realitytvlinks.com. December 22, 2003.

  59 Adams, Michael. Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada, and the Myth of Converging Values. Toronto: Penguin, 2003. p. 53.

  60 Ibid.

  61 Ibid.

  62 Ibid. p. 54.

  63 Ibid.

  64 Ibid.

  65 Ibid.

  66 Eisenberg, Pablo. “The Voluntary Sector: Problems and Challenges.” In O’Connell, Brian, ed. America’s Voluntary Spirit. Washington, DC: Foundation Center, 1983. p. 306; O’Neill, Michael. The Third America: The Emergence of the Nonprofit Sector in the United States. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1989. p. 13.

  67 Sokolowski, S. Wojciech, and Lester M. Salamon. “The United States.” In Salamon, Lester M., Helmut Anheier, Regina List, Stefan Toepler, and Wojciech S. Sokolowski. “Global Civil Society: Dimensions of the Nonprofit Sector.” Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project, The Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, 1999. pp. 267-268. www.jhu.edu/~ccss/ pubs/books/gcs

  68 Ibid. p. 261.

  69 Ibid. p. 268.

  70 Ibid. p. 272.

  71 Ibid. p. 270.

  72 Putnam, Robert D. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000. p. 283.

  73 Bostrom, Meg. “Achieving the American Dream: A Meta-Analysis of Public Opinion Concerning Poverty, Upward Mobility, and Related Issues.” Douglas Gould & Co. for the Ford Foundation. September 27, 2001.

  CHAPTER 2: THE NEW LAND OF OPPORTUNITY

  1 Lazarus, Emma. “The New Colossus.” From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition. 2002. www.bartleby.com. August 13, 2003.

  2 Smeeding, Timothy M. “Globalization, Inequality, and the Rich Countries of the G-20: Evidence from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS).” July 30, 2002. p. 14.

  3 Ibid.

  4 Ibid. p. 11.

  5 Ibid. p. 22; Jesuit, David, and Timothy Smeeding. “Poverty and Income Distribution.” Luxembourg Income Study White Paper No. 293. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University, January 2002. p. 6.

  6 Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. The State of Working America 2002/2003. The Economic Policy Institute. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003. pp. 403-404.

  7 Uchitelle, Louise. “A Recovery for Profits, But Not for Workers.” The New York Times. December 21, 2003; Meyerson, Harold. “Un-American Recovery.” The Washington Post. December 24, 2003.

  8 Herbert, Bob. “Another Battle for Bush.” The New York Times. December 15, 2003.

  9 Uchitelle, Louise. “A Recovery for Profits, But Not for Workers.”

  10 Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. The State of Working America 2002/2003. p. 405-406.

  11 Ibid. pp. 407, 410-411.

  12 Jesuit, David, and Timothy Smeeding. “Poverty Levels in the Developed World.” Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. July 23, 2002. pp. 8,9; Jesuit, David, and Timothy Smeeding. “Poverty and Income Distribution.” p. 7.

  13 “Views of a Changing World.” The Pew Global Attitudes Project. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. June 2003. pp. 8, 108.

  14 Ibid. p. 108.

  15 Glazer, Nathan. “Why Americans Don’t Care About Income Inequality.” Paper presented at the Inequality and Social Policy Seminar Series. February 11, 2002. pp. 9-10.

  16 Ibid. p. 10.

  17 Ibid. p. 5; Inglehart, Ronald. 1990 World Values Survey.

  18 “Views of a Changing World.” The Pew Global Attitudes Project. p. 8.

  19 Bernstein, Robert. “Poverty, Income See Slight Changes; Child Poverty Rate Unchanged, Census Bureau Reports.” United States Department of Commerce News. September 26, 2003. www.census.gov

  20 Harrison, Paige M., and Jennifer C. Karberg. “Prison and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2002.” Bureau of Justice Statistics. April 2003; “Two Million Inmates, and Counting.” The New York Times. April 9, 2003.

  21 Glazer, Nathan. “Why Americans Don’t Care About Income Inequality.” p. 3; “Economic Portrait of the European Union 2002.” European Commission, 2002.

  22 Glazer, Nathan. “Why Americans Don’t Care About Income Inequality.” pp. 3-4.

  23 Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. The State of Working America 2002/2003. pp. 420-421.

  24 Ibid. pp. 399-402; “Progress on the Lisbon Strategy.” European Commission, 2003. www.europa.eu.int. p. 2.

  25 Gordon, Robert J. “Two Centuries of Economic Growth: Europe Chasing the American Frontier.” Economic History Workshop, Northwestern University. October 17, 2002. p. 126.

  26 McGuckin, Robert H., and Bart van Ark. “Performance 2002: Productivity, Employment, and Income in the World Economies.” The Conference Board. March 2003. pp. 3, 7. www.conference-board.org/publications/describe.cfm?id=649.

  27 Ibid. pp. 4, 14.

  28 Rhoades, Christopher. “U.S., EU Productivity Gap Is Widening.” The Wall Street Journal. January 19, 2004.

  29 Broad, William J. “US Is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences.” The New York Times. May 3, 2004.

  30 Foster, Ian, and Carl Kesselman, eds. The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure . San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 1999. p. xix.

  31 Ibid.

  32 Ibid.

  33 Markoff, John, and Jennifer L. Schenker. “Europe Exceeds U.S. in Refining Grid Computing.” The New York Times. November 10, 2003.

  34 Ibid.

  35 Ibid.

  36 McGuckin, Robert H., and Bart van Ark. “Performance 2002: Productivity, Employment, and Income in the World Economies.” p. 5; “Progress on the Lisbon Strategy.” European Commission, 2003. p. 2.

  37 Honore, Carl. “A Time to Work, a Time to Play: France’s 35-hour Week: Shorter Hours Result in a Social Revolution.” National Post. January 31, 2002.

  38 Trumbull, Gunnar. “France’s 35 Hour Work Week: Flexibility Through Regulation.” The Brookings Institution. January 2001.

  39 “Making France Work.” The Wall Street Journal. October 10, 2003.

  40 Honore, Carl. “A Time to Work, a Time to Play: France’s 35-hour Week: Shorter Hours Result in a Social Revolution.”

  41 Foroohar, Rana, et al. “Eat, Drink, and Go Slow: The Post-Crash Backlash Against American Taste.” Newsweek International, Atlantic Edition. July 2, 2001.

  42 “French Law: The Standard French Working Week.” Triplet and Associés. March 30, 2004. www.triplet.com

  43 Jeffries, Stuart. “The World: C’est magnifique! Le weekend Just Goes On and On for French Workers.” The Guardian. May 27, 2001.

  44 Honore, Carl. “Slowing the World: Last in a Series.” National Post. January 31, 2002.

  45 Rhoads, Christopher. “Clocking Out: Short Work Hours Undercut European Economic Drive.” The Wall Street Journal. August 8, 2002.

  46 Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. The State of Working America 2002/2003. p. 425; “Employment Outlook: Average Annual Hours Worked in the OECD, 1979-2000.” Paris: OECD, 2001.

  47 Mishel, Lawrence, Jared Bernstein, and Heather Boushey. The State of Working America 2002/2003. p. 425.

  48 “Changeover from Career Breaks to Time Credits Proves Complex.” European Industrial Relations Observatory. August 2001. www.eiro.eurofound.eu.int

  49 “Inter-community Dispute on Time Credit Scheme.” European Industrial Relations Observatory. February 2002. www.eiro.eurofound.ie/2002/02/inbrief/BE0202305N.html

  50 Ibid.; “Changeover from Career Breaks to Time Credits Proves Complex.” European Industrial Relations Observatory.

  51 McGuckin, Robert H., and Bart van Ark. “Performance 2002: Productivity, Employment, and
Income in the World Economies.”

  52 Scheier, Lee. “Call it a Day, America.” Chicago Tribune. May 5, 2002.

  53 Ibid.

  54 “Main Economic Indicators: Purchasing Power Parities.” OECD. February 2004. www.oecd.org

  55 “Employment Outlook: Average Annual Hours Worked in the OECD, 1979-2000.” Paris: OECD, 2001.

  56 “Annual Average Unemployment Rate, Civilian Labor Force 16 Years and Older.” March 18, 2003. Bureau of Labor Statistics. www.bls.gov/cps/prev_yrs.htm; “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.” Bureau of Labor Statistics. May 26, 2004. www.bls.gov.

  57 “Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey (SIC).” U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. http://data.bls.gov. August 12, 2003; “Prison Statistics.” Bureau of Justice Statistics Prison Statistics. December 31, 2002. www.ojp.usdoj.gov; “Key Facts at a Glance: Correctional Populations.” U.S. Department of Justice. Bureau of Justice Statistics. July 27, 2003. www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance

  58 Herbert, Bob. “Despair of the Jobless.” The New York Times. August 7, 2003; “Jobs and the Jobless.” The Washington Post. May 5, 2003.

  59 “U.S. Personal Savings Rates.” Bureau of Economic Analysis. October 3, 2003.

  60 “New ILO Study Highlights Labour Trends Worldwide: US Productivity Up, Europe Improves Ability to Create Jobs.” International Labour Organization. September 1, 2003. www.ilo.org; “Productivity and Costs, Second Quarter 2003, revised.” Bureau of Labor Statistics. September 4, 2003. www.bls.gov; Berry, John M. “Efficiency of U.S. Workers Up Sharply.” Washington Post. February 7, 2003.