Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future [Hardcover]

Samuel Gregg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 2013

“We’re becoming like Europe.” This expression captures many Americans’ sense that something has changed in American economic life since the Great Recession’s onset in 2008: that an economy once characterized by commitments to economic liberty, rule of law, limited government, and personal responsibility has drifted in a distinctly “European” direction.

Americans see, across the Atlantic, European economies faltering under enormous debt; overburdened welfare states; governments controlling close to fifty percent of the economy; high taxation; heavily regulated labor markets; aging populations; and large numbers of public-sector workers. They also see a European political class seemingly unable—and, in some cases, unwilling—to implement economic reform, and seemingly more concerned with preserving its own privileges. Looking at their own society, Americans are increasingly asking themselves: “Is this our future?”

In Becoming Europe, Samuel Gregg examines economic culture—the values and institutions that inform our economic priorities—to explain how European economic life has drifted in the direction of what Alexis de Tocqueville called “soft despotism,” and the ways in which similar trends are manifesting themselves in the United States. America, Gregg argues, is not yet Europe; the good news is that economic decline need not be its future. The path to recovery lies in the distinctiveness of American economic culture. Yet there are ominous signs that some of the cultural foundations of America’s historically unparalleled economic success are being corroded in ways that are not easily reversible—and the European experience should serve as the proverbial canary in the coal mine.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"How have European political elites stifled innovation and emptied out freedom in the name of solidarity and social justice?  Samuel Gregg tells us how, with clarity and detail. And he tells us how we Americans can retain and reignite our spirit of civic entrepreneurship and love of economic freedom.  This book is a sober warning for all of us. But it's also a vital guide for everyone who want to preserve the free society and the uniqueness of the American experiment."
 
-Edwin J. Feulner, President, The Heritage Foundation

"If you don't know Samuel Gregg's writings, you don't know one of the top two or three writers on the free society today...Gregg has produced a profound explanation of the economic crisis shaking the Old Continent, and shows where the New World seems headed in the same direction. "Becoming Europe" is magnificent in its scope, compelling in its analysis, and ultimately hopeful in its conclusions..."
 
-Michael Novak, author, The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism

"Gregg spotlights the perils of American progressive arrogance so clearly they can no longer be denied or ignored. His logic is incontrovertible. Every economist, historian, and politician should read Becoming Europe."
 
Amity Shlaes, author of The Forgotten Man and Coolidge.

"Becoming Europe might not sound so bad: old buildings, long lunches, generous welfare. But, believe me my friends, it's not where you want to be. Europe is a terrifying example of what happens when the state gets too large and the money runs out. Don't imagine that it couldn't happen to you."
 
Daniel Hannan, British Conservative Member of the European Parliament

"Highly readable, well-researched and extremely timely. This book is the definitive case why America should cling to its belief that liberty and free enterprise are the source of human flourishing rather than follow Continental Europe into corporatism, big government and economic stagnation. It deserves to be widely read."

Lord Griffiths of Fforestfach, Vice Chairman, Goldman Sachs International and former special adviser to Margaret Thatcher

About the Author

Samuel Gregg is director of research at the Acton Institute. He is the author of many books, including On Ordered Liberty (2003), his prize-winning The Commercial Society (2007), and Wilhelm Röpke’s Political Economy (2010). He lectures regularly in America and Europe on topics encompassing political economy, economic culture, and morality and the economy. His writing has appeared in academic journals and magazines including National Review, The American Spectator, and Crisis Magazine, as well as newspapers throughout America, Europe, and Latin America.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Encounter Books (January 8, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594036373
• ISBN-13: 978-1594036378
• Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 1.4 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #303,830 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Samuel Gregg is director of research at the Acton Institute. He has written and spoken extensively on questions of political economy, economic history, ethics in finance, and natural law theory. He has an MA in political philosophy from the University of Melbourne, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in moral philosophy and political economy from the University of Oxford, where he worked under the supervision of Professor John Finnis.

He is the author of several books, including Morality, Law, and Public Policy (2000), Economic Thinking for the Theologically Minded (2001), On Ordered Liberty (2003), his prize-winning The Commercial Society (2007), The Modern Papacy (2009), and Wilhelm Röpke's Political Economy (2010) as well as monographs such as Ethics and Economics: The Quarrel and the Dialogue (1999), A Theory of Corruption (2004), and Banking, Justice, and the Common Good (2005). Several of these works have been translated into a variety of languages. He has also co-edited books such as Christian Theology and Market Economics (2008), Profit, Prudence and Virtue: Essays in Ethics, Business and Management (2009), and Natural Law, Economics and the Common Good (2012). His forthcoming book is entitled Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and America's Future. He has also written on the thought of St. Thomas More.

He publishes in journals such as the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy; Journal of Markets & Morality; Economic Affairs; Law and Investment Management; Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines; Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy; Evidence; Ave Maria Law Review; Oxford Analytica; Communio; Journal of Scottish Philosophy; University Bookman, Moreana, and Policy. He is a regular writer of opinion-pieces which appear in publications such as the Wall Street Journal Europe; Foreign Affairs; National Review; Public Discourse; American Spectator; Australian Financial Review; and Business Review Weekly. His op-eds are also widely published in newspapers throughout Europe and Latin America. He has served as an editorial consultant for the Italian journal, La Societa, as well as American correspondent for the German newspaper Die Tagespost.

In 2001, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and a Member of the Mont Pèlerin Society in 2004. In 2008, he was elected a member of the Philadelphia Society, and a member of the Royal Economic Society. He is the General Editor of Lexington Books' Studies in Ethics and Economics Series. He also sits on the Academic Advisory Boards of Campion College, Sydney; the La Fundación Burke, Madrid; and the Institute of Economic Affairs, London; as well as the editorial boards of the Journal of Markets and Morality and Revista Valores en la sociedad industrial.

Books:

On Ordered Liberty
The Commercial Society
Wilhelm Röpke's Political Economy

Recent articles:

Truth, Lies, and Euros
Can't Face Economic Reality
Monetary Possibilities for a Post-Euro Europe
The American Left's European Nightmare
Europe's Right in Disarray
Financial Fiddling while the Euro Burns
The Prophet of Europe's Crisis

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Still Not Too Late to Turn Back January 20, 2013

By Eric Mayforth

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For decades many Americans have believed that social democracy as it is practiced in Western Europe is superior to our comparatively market-driven economic system, and that view gained more adherents following the economic crisis of 2008. But Samuel Gregg's wise new book "Becoming Europe" shows how the European model is not a panacea for the problems that result from the imperfections of our own system and urges that we resist the European temptation.

Gregg defines the European economic culture as one which "routinely prioritizes economic security over economic liberty...and where economic incentives lie not in hard work, economic creativity, and a willingness to take risks, but rather in access to political power."

Beginning with the guilds of the Middle Ages and continuing up to the adoption of the euro, the author shows how the European economic model developed and how European economies have been under much more intervention than the American economy has. Gregg also discusses the deleterious impact on Europe by rent-seeking, deficits and debt, inappropriate responses to globalization, and the gigantic welfare state; he also talks about some of the reasons that, once implemented, interventions by the state are difficult to overturn.

Gregg lists in the final chapter actions America can take to avoid Europeanization and the benefits, both material and moral, that would accrue to us by doing so. However, the author cites an NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll that suggests that we don't appreciate what must be done to preserve freedom and avoid fiscal calamity in the future.

Recent elections and events bear this out: the public has fiercely resisted both enormous middle-class tax increases (necessary if we are to pay for the welfare state we already have, let alone ObamaCare, once we reach the inevitable point at which we can no longer borrow trillions and trillions at low rates) and massive budget cuts (necessary if we don't want to have enormous middle-class tax hikes once we reach the inevitable point at which we can no longer borrow trillions and trillions at low rates).

Liberty-loving Americans hope, not just for our own sake but for the sake of the generations that follow us, that taxes, regulations, and spending are pared back to manageable levels and the American economy moves back in the direction of greater freedom and less state control. Gregg's book is a great road map pointing toward that destination.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Culture Matters: A Refreshing Nuance in Dealing with Our Economic Crisis February 19, 2013

By John

Format:Kindle Edition

It is not often that one finds refreshing nuance in books dealing with economy. Economics is not supposed to be about nuance. It usually presents itself in the cold black and white terms of mathematical models and statistical analyses. Perhaps that is why the discipline has been called the "dismal science" since its cold formulae seem bereft of life.

There is life, however, in Samuel Gregg's new book, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future. His work is indeed about economy, but he makes an effort to explain the "why" rather than the "what" behind the present crisis. He resists the temptation to simplify the challenges we face as a nation, and confronts head-on the European welfare state model that looms on the horizon.

Gregg's central thesis is that America risks "becoming Europe" economically if it drifts further toward the dangerous models that are now imperiling the Old Continent and could later threaten us here. He outlines ways by which we can avoid this "European" future.

The substance of his narrative is a meticulous examination of European economic life stretching all the way back to the Middle Ages. Gregg follows the rise of what he calls a corporatist inorganic dirigiste mentality that has long come to dominate the European economic landscape and has contributed to the formation of the Union's modern welfare states. To demonstrate this, he supplies plenty of standard economic data.

However, there is also the refreshing nuance that comes when he steps outside the economic box. Gregg pays special attention to those cultural factors that many economists tend to neglect since they cannot be quantified. Culture is important, he contends. Markets follow culture; ignoring this factor is perilous.

Adding yet more nuance, Gregg admits that cultures are complex and untidy affairs that often defy scholarly analysis. The changeable priorities inside a culture strongly influence economy and give rise to institutional expressions. Like it or not, economies are embedded inside cultures and, while not all can be explained through its prism, the long and short of it is that "economic culture matters."

Thus, Gregg's description of the European economic crisis acquires depth by adding this cultural dimension. His text is not reduced to the standard citations of Smith, Hayek and Keynes but broadened with quotes from Tocqueville and Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Perhaps the most important conclusion to be taken from this book is that changing our economy is not a simple matter of changing policies, as if replacing a light bulb. Rather it involves those all-important factors of moral and cultural habits and attitudes that are not easily modified. It deals with overcoming bad statist habits. Above all, government intervention can never be considered a cure-all way to solve our problems.

As a solution, Gregg proposes that America would do well to apply the principle of subsidiarity. By this principle, a social unit should have recourse to a higher unit or authority only in those matters it is unable to handle properly on its own. In most cases, Gregg notes, "social and economic problems are more appropriately addressed by non-state forms of human associations."

The good news is that the foundation for such an application is already there. The Acton Institute scholar calls for a return to an order that incorporates certain elements, not found in Europe, that still remain deeply ingrained in our nation's psyche and rooted in its history. There is, for example, a national preference to use third sector civil and religious associations to resolve problems and for the practice of charity. Moreover, America still retains a culture of free enterprise, a strong rule of law, a high respect for property rights and other factors. The bad news is that all these elements are seriously eroded. They need to be revived and invigorated if a "European" future is to be avoided.

Becoming Europe is an important reminder that policy alone will not resolve our economic crisis. Refreshing nuance is needed. The unquantifiable moral dimension that was taken out of the economy must be put back in. Indeed, as Gregg concludes, "Life is about much more than maximizing utility."

John Horvat II, author of [[[...]]]

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars America on the way to Becoming Europe March 29, 2013

By The Mallard

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Samuel Gregg book "Becoming Europe" is a scholarly, well-timed commentary on the economic state of affairs in Europe and America. The question he poses about whether America is going the way of Europe in terms of untenable debt loads, economic stagnation, and unaffordable wellfare statism is very pertinent to our time. His historical review about how Europe became today's Europe is fascinating. He tells about Europeans and others visiting America and their commentary about the American way. Especially interesting are the observations of Frenchman Tocqueville who traveled this country in the 1830s.
As he describes it, there seem little hope for Europe because no one -- left or right -- in individual countries or the EU as a whole has the courage to take the tough decisions in light of the huge opposition of the welfare state residents. The bigger question for us is, will we see the European canary in the coal mine in time to save America's economy and way of life? Gregg thinks it's possible, but he also has serious doubts.
Americans who value economic and other freedoms will do themselves a favor by reading this book. My personal feeling is that after this last presidential election, America has already reached the tipping point and that it's only a matter of time before America indeed becomes Europe.