Customer Reviews

Europe's Promise: Why the European Way Is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age

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As we watch the Obama adminstration having such a hard time reforming the broken health care system in the US, and with our unemployment more than twice what it was in 2008 (and yes, even higher now than in "old Europe"), it was refreshing to read about Europe, where people actually have health care. And a lot more too, as I learned by reading this wonderful book. I had heard previously about how much support families and workers have in Europe, but I had no idea about the full extent of it -- more generous retirement pension, affordable housing, paid leave after having a child, child care, more vacations and holidays and much more. Some countries even give you money right before you go on vacation! Incredible. Talk about "family values": Europe does far more to support their families than the US ever thought of doing.

As the book points out, the US has nearly 14 percent of Americans in poverty (compared to 6% in France and 5% or less in Germany, Belgium and Sweden), 20% child poverty and 23% elderly poverty (the highest in the developed western world except Russia and Mexico). I can't believe we Americans are so ignorant about the rest of the world, and how much we have fallen behind a place like Europe. And yet, as the book shows, several of the "myths" we learn about Europe as conventional wisdom are untrue. Their businesses are profitable and competitive, they have more Fortune 500 companies than the US and China COMBINED. But they also have more small businesses than the US that create 2/3 of the jobs there, while small businesses in US only create about half the jobs in our country. Overturning the stereotypes, that's what this book does. It really opened my eyes.

Europe's economy is at least as strong as "let's cause a global collapse" America's economy, and yet it also is better at distributing that wealth to its people. The author, Steven Hill, calls that "social capitalism" as opposed to US-style "Wall Street capitalism". And they also have figured out how to do that in a more environmentally sustainable way. Europe's "economic footprint" is HALF that of the US, their carbon emissions is HALF that of the US, and their energy use is HALF that of the US -- even though they have a standard of living that is at least as good as ours, and in many ways better.

I don't know how long my fellow Americans are going to keep our collective heads in the sand. It's clear that one of the negative reviewers here, Rene Gerald, hasn't even bothered to actually read the book. He talks about Europe's problems of immigration and declining population (though that's only occuring in a few countries), but Europe's Promise addresses both of those head on over the course of three different chapters. Certainly Europe has some challenges to meet there, but after reading Steven Hill's discussion of those problems, and getting more of the bigger picture, it seems to me that Europe is dealing with them. Though obviously time will tell how all those pressures play out. But the US is certainly no country to be lecturing others about immigration!

In short, I highly recommend this book. It really opened my eyes to both a truer picture of Europe, getting past the myths and stereotypes, as well as a truer picture of my own country, the United States of America, and its relative standing in the world. And it gave me hope that there is an example that we in the US could learn about how a modern society can develop, and take care of its people, and do all that in as environmentally sustainable a way as possible.

Europe's Promise is an interesting comparison of the American and the European ideas vis-à-vis the "Social Contract." That is if you even think there is one any more, or are part of, what was once the social contract between American workers and employers. This idea, of an obligation from employers, the government and individuals to the "whole" is the subject of this book. It delves into why universal health care WORKS in Europe, but why it will not in the US. The answer is simple. In Europe the purpose of health care is to provide CARE for people. In the US the purpose of health care is to make a PROFIT. After all, you don't think the reason the health care INDUSRTY opposes a single payer system is because it won't work- it is because they WONT MAKE AS MUCH MONEY! And for those of you with no exposure to Europe, I have some. But the best example I can give you is that of my neighbor who lives across the street. He was on vacation in Rome. He had a heart attack while in Rome at dinner on night. He was taken to a hospital, had heart surgery, and then recuperated in the hospital before flying home. Cost - Zero. If you get sick in Europe you are taken care of. In Europe EVERYONE has health coverage.

The book rightly points out that what Europeans pay in "taxes" they get back in social benefits. Only a small portion of US citizens get the level of benefits that Europeans get. When you add up the cost of ALL taxes - federal, state, local, municipal, plus the cost for items such as health care, child care, education, what we pay in the US is just as much or more and what we get less, because we live in a "For Profit" society, not in a "for the General Good" society. Europe has no CEO's like that of United Health Group who make $100 million a year. Health care in Europe is non-profit. It is about health - not profit. Does anyone really think the US health firms are about health? If they were, they would be leading the way to provide coverage to all, not fighting every aspect of the current health care reform legislation.

Aside from health care alone, the book compares and contrasts the European way, the European approach, to many social, economic, and diplomatic issues in comparison to the US way. We, the US come up on the short end of the straw every time. And we should. Does anyone (outside of Texas and Wyoming) still think invading Iraq was a good idea? The Europeans, and much as I hate to say so the French, were against if from the start and they were right. European diplomacy has been based upon Joseph Nye's idea of "soft power" while the years 2001 to 2009 saw nothing but US hard power, for better or worse.

As the book points out, what has been called the "ownership society" is really just a euphemism for the "You are on your own" society. One need only look at the state of US today. 10 percent unemployment. If you are unemployed you are on your own. In Europe unemployment benefits and job retraining are much better. US employers actively seek ways to AVOID providing any type of benefits to their workers. While in Europe the types of benefits that our parents or grandparents got from their employers are still normal. Health insurance, vacations, holidays, sick time, pensions. While in the US you are pretty much left to take care of your self "on your own" because you have "freedom of choice." Good luck saving for health care, a vacation, and college for your kids when you are making $10.50 an hour working at Big Mart. Of course you pay lower taxes. But so do the AIG high rollers. And they surely pay lower taxes than you do.

From the Financial Times, February 8, 2010

Review of "Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an
Insecure Age" by Steven Hill

Review by Tony Barber

(excerpt)



Steven Hill, director of the political reform programme at the New America
Foundation think-tank, has two purposes in writing this book. One is to set
out the case that Europe's methods of economic management, cradle-to-grave
social support systems, democratic structures, ecological consciousness and
temperate foreign policy are the way forward for the world. The global order
is being remade, he says, and what will emerge on the other side will be a
new world based on the European model. Europe is a beacon for humanity's
future, no less, and it holds the greatest potential for the planet.



Hill's second goal is to show that the US, far from being an example for the
world, is nowadays no model at all. Compared with Europe, he says, the
United States is behind in nearly every socioeconomic category. Its economy
is an obsolete, hyper-militarised model"and, even under Barack Obama, is
mired in an antiquated free market ideology.



US democratic institutions are "unrepresentative, divisive and
disenfranchising", characterised by de facto one-party fiefdoms and 70m
unregistered voters almost one-third of those eligible. The nation wastes
colossal quantities of energy and fails to provide decent healthcare for
millions of uninsured citizens. US foreign policy is trapped in a
Vietnam-era mentality of using military muscle and even invading nations as
a way of dealing with unsavoury elements".



No question, Hill makes you sit up and think. Unlike intellectually lazier
writers, he does not buy the argument that the 21st century belongs
inevitably to China. He is surely right in saying that Europe's prosperous,
peaceful and democratic social market economy looks attractive when
contrasted with the unbalanced, excessively deregulated US model or with
China's politically repressive capitalism, Russia's petrodollar
authoritarianism, Japan's corporate cronyism or conservative Islam. He makes
a perceptive point, too, when he says that American conservatives play up
Europe's difficulties as a way of suppressing discussion of radical change
in the US.Europe, with its affordable universal healthcare, unemployment
benefits, paid holidays and sick leave, childcare, time off for parents
after a birth and inexpensive university fees, has certainly built an
enviable form of social capitalism.



Hill is a lucid and engaging writer, and he recognises that not everything
in Europe smells of roses. For example, Europe faces formidable problems in
its declining birth rates and its reluctance, or inability, to integrate the
millions of immigrants needed to sustain its prosperity in coming decades.
Hill is right: the US model requires modernisation. But when it comes to
welcoming the world's huddled masses, Europeans could learn from their
American cousins.

I have traveled extensively throughout Europe, from Spain in the west to Hungary and Croatia in the east and everything in between, and I have always been struck by how well everything works in Europe, and how much support families and individuals recieve, increasingly important in this age of globalized capitalism that is breeding economic inequality around the world. Yet whenever I returned to the US, I was struck by the uninformed and sneering US media descriptions of Europe as "sclerotic", "economic basketcase" etc. So I was thrilled to recently come across Steven Hill's fantastic new book "Europe's Promise" that helped me articulate what I had witnessed with my own eyes.

Whether you are looking at health care and various social supports for families, or preparing for global warming by introducing conservation and renewable technologies, Europe is leading the way. But this is not "socialism," as some critics have claimed; the author instead calls it "social capitalism," since Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than the US, and the World Economic Forum rates Europe as having some of the most competitive national economies in the world. What the author shows is that Europe has figured out how to take the amazing ability of capitalism to generate wealth and to harness that wealth for a more broadly shared prosperity. Meanwhile the US-style Wall Street capitalism has caused a worldwide economic collapse, a decline in US manufacturing, rising inequality and an economy that is too dependent on finance and paper wealth.

One of the knocks against Europe is that Europeans allegedly pay more in taxes. But Steven HIll points out how erroneous that is, and shows how this is a distorted stereotype. It really depends on which American you're talking about. For their taxes, Europeans receive a seemingly endless list of benefits and services -- quality health care, decent retirement, more vacation, paid parental leave, paid sick leave, free or nearly free university education, housing assistance and much more -- for which we Americans must pay extra via out-of-pocket fees, premiums, deductibles, tuition and other charges, in addition to our taxes. When you sum up the total balance sheet, you discover that many Americans pay out as much as or more than Europeans -- but we receive a lot less for our money.

I truly do hope that the United States can learn from Europe, because I think the world would be a better place if it did. Yes we can!

I generally don't write to this site, but the ideas Steven Hill discusses in his book are too important for us Americans to ignore.

Since the days after World War II, when the US showed Europeans a peaceful way forward, I think we've increasingly lost our way.

We've become embroiled in one fortune-squandering war after another, from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, and we're on track to get bogged down in even more such destructive wars in the very near future.

In contrast to Europe, we've outsourced millions of our good-paying, productive manufacturing jobs to China, India, and elsewhere around the world, and now millions of hard-working Americans are left to scrape by with minimum wage, non-union jobs at Wal-Mart, McDonalds and countless other such enterprises, often working two and three jobs just to get by.

Since Reagan and Bush, we've deregulated just about everything that was running well in our country, and imposed instead what its advocates adoringly call "self'regulation" - of the financial markets, the banks, the brokerages, the oil corporations, and yes, of the drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico, coupled of course with regulatory capture, i.e. the takeover, by the regulated industries themselves, of our formerly functioning regulatory institutions such as the S.E.C. (for Wall Street) and the M.M.S. (for the Gulf oil drillers).

I'm surprised to read in some of these reviews comments carping about sensible European regulations as "overbearing", but praising our deregulation as the trademark of "dynamic free markets" of a "free people" - that after Main Street has just been wiped out by greedy, essentially unregulated Wall Street, and the entire Eastern Gulf of Mexico has become an oil disaster zone thanks to greedy and essentially unregulated oil executives.

Let me just add one perspective here that the readers of these pages may not be aware of, regarding health care in Europe, which has been mentioned by several reviewers, because this does go to the core of Steven Hill's theses, and is a good indicator for how a society values its people.

As a US citizen, and a medical doctor living in Germany, one of the many European countries where health care is universally available for its residents at affordable rates, I might have some perspectives you haven't yet run across.

What I find most astounding about our US health care system is not only how many people don't have coverage (some 46 million, and going up). But rather, how fragile and precarious health care coverage is for so many people who think they are well insured.

How does our US health care system compare? Let's go through some important points in the universal health care system in Germany, which I'm very familiar with, having worked in this system for some 17 years:

Here in Germany you are mandated to have standard comprehensive health insurance: your employer pays half the monthly family premium, you pay the other half,

*you don't get rejected because of any previous condition,

*you don't pay more or less working for a large or small business,

*you don't pay more or less if you are male or female, black or white, German or foreign born, gay or straight,

*the rates don't go up if someone in the small (or large) business gets sick,

*health insurance is not a consideration when changing jobs or careers because you take the policy with you,

*you don't lose your policy if you get sick, if you become unemployed, or even if your employer goes out of business,

*you won't be billed for "out of network" services in hospitals or elsewhere - these services are part of your coverage, no matter which hospital or team of doctors treats you,

*you don't have annual, lifetime, disease-related, or disease-recurrence caps,

*you won't be billed at 20%, 30% or more for expensive medications ("price-tiered" pharmaceuticals), because there is no "tiering", legally approved pharmaceuticals are fully covered when you need them, even if they're very expensive,

*nor will you ever go bankrupt due to unpaid and unaffordable medical bills piling up, - that simply doesn't happen - you enjoy completely comprehensive coverage.

*Also, forget expensive copays ($48.00/year max. for doctor visits @ $12.00 per quarter, a few dollars per prescription, a minimal meals expense during a hospital stay.

*Forget too the denials, the constant slog of endless 0800 calls (yours and your doctor's) to your insurance company for requests for coverage or adjustments, wasting huge amounts of people's time, energy, and productive capacity every business day - this doesn't happen in Germany, because this is a comprehensive coverage system (which is an important reason why it's so efficient).

I might add that Germany is a democratic country with a freely elected government; its residents are free people - this is not "Russia". In fact, this is the country with long stretches of Autobahn without speed limits, right? (Here, it's your responsibility to drive safely, and most do.) People here freely change jobs, careers, and locations without regard for health insurance, and live free of the fear of going bankrupt or losing their homes or life's savings if they were to get seriously ill, because their comprehensive insurance protects them from that!

Germany and its residents are not going broke paying for this, either. On the contrary, this fair, efficiently run health care system costs roughly a third less per person than the US system - that's right, about 1/3 less per capita - despite (or because?) everyone is on board and receiving comprehensive health care.

That figure doesn't come from rationing, long waits to see a doctor, or long waiting lists to get an operation, either - that doesn't happen here. What that figure does reflect, however, is just how much waste, duplication, and gouging of consumers must be taking place in the US health care system every day.

My point in describing the German health care system is not to encourage you all to move to Germany, but to prove to you, that for one-third less money than you currently already spend, you should be getting comprehensive, universal health care, like every resident of Germany does (yes, including all immigrants!). But you're not, and if the health care reform law should be repealed or overturned by Tea Party Republicans, or ruled "unconstitutional" by the Roberts Supreme Court, tens of millions of Americans won't have access to universal healthcare in the future, either.

Isn't it time to face up to our national challenges as adults, and finally join the peoples of the 17 (seventeen!) other advanced democracies (not "Russia", but, yes indeed, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Australia, Japan, S. Korea, Taiwan, etc.!) around the world, who already enjoy the benefits of universal, comprehensive, and affordable health care? Isn't it also time for us to start taking effective steps to ween our economy from the Oil Age? And isn't it also time to institute strong financial reforms to keep Wall Street greed from destroying the our, and the world's, entire economy yet again in the coming years?

Inform yourself, read Steven Hill's book, discuss it with friends in livingroom get-togethers, in classes, forums, and seminars. Get these facts, ideas, and models for moving our country forward out to your friends and neighbors. Let's learn the lessons from the disasters we've just experienced, and let's help get our country moving forward again. The choices are ours to make.

Dr. med. Frederick B. Lacey Jr.
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Excerpt from "Who wins in U.S. vs Europe contest?"
Feb 12, 2010
by Bernd Debusmann, columnist for Reuters International

Europe's Promise marshals an impressive army of facts and comparative statistics to show that the United States is behind Europe in nearly every socio-economic category that can be measured and that neither America's trickle-down, Wall Street-driven capitalism nor China's state capitalism hold the keys to the future.

While China's growth has been impressive, says Hill, the country remains, in essence, a sub-contractor to the West and is racked by internal contradictions.

In these days of renewed gloom about the future of Europe, a quick test is in order. Who has the world's biggest economy? A) The United States B) China/Asia C) Europe? Who has the most Fortune 500 companies? A) The United States B) China C) Europe. Who attracts most U.S. investment? A) Europe B) China C) Asia.

The correct answer in each case is Europe, short for the 27-member European Union (EU), a region with 500 million citizens. They produce an economy almost as large as the United States and China combined but have, so far, largely failed to make much of a dent in American perceptions that theirs is a collection of cradle-to-grave nanny states doomed to be left behind in a 21st century that will belong to China.

"When I talk to American audiences," Hill said in an interview, "many find the figures I cite hard to believe. They haven't heard them before. U.S. businesses making more profits in Europe than anywhere else, 20 times more than in China? 179 of the world's top companies are European compared with 140 American? That does not fit the preconceptions."

Such preconceptions exist, in part, because U.S. media have portrayed Europe as a region in perpetual crisis, its economies sclerotic, its taxes a disincentive to personal initiative, its standards of living lower than America's, its universal health care, guaranteed pensions, long vacations and considerably shorter working hours a recipe for low growth and stagnation. "In the transmission of news across the Atlantic, myth has been substituted for reality," says Hill.

This was a highly educational book which gave me a perspective on Europe that I haven't gotten before in my readings which compare the US and European countries. Check out my blogged book review at [...]. In a nutshell, what makes Hill's book different is he sets to explain HOW European countries are able to maintain a high level of economic activity and balance it with broadly providing an excellent standard of living to its ordinary citizens. He gives a snapshot of little-known practices such as codetermination, flexicurity, and other practices which don't exist in the US and which the Europeans have institutionalized with broad consensus as normal aspects of their societies. If you want to learn the nuts and bolts that go into how Europe conducts its more equitable version of social democracy and capitalism you should read this book.

Originally from good "Old Europe" myself, I have lived in the U.S. for almost 10 years by now. The U.S. is a great place to live ... especially when you are young, healthy, and employed. Having experienced the "Great Recession" in Silicon Valley first hand, I have had a good look at the shortcomings of the American Way as well.

Steven Hill is right on target with his analysis of the differences between the European and American systems. His description of future challenges for both systems is accurate as well. Having lived, worked, and paid taxes on both continents for quite some time, I can say that I fully agree with the author's analysis and conclusions. He does an excellent job in explaining the connections between institutions, economic & societal outcomes, and the underlying values in the U.S. and in European societies. Will this well-researched 400+ page book change the tone or direction of the political debate in the U.S. though? Unlikely. But it provides a solid base for discussion for those willing to learn about this complex and sometimes chaotic European project.

You could only wish this book a large readership among conservative Americans as well, but I'm afraid the author's tone will come across as too provocative at times. But if I hear another dumb and misinformed statement about "Socialist Europe", at least I can point people to this book and hope for the best.

Steven Hill's 'European Promise' is an excellent, well-documented book. It gives long-needed understanding and honesty in comparing our U.S.-style of doing things with the U.K's. Living in Europe as I do I have sent several copies to family and friends in the U.S. hoping they will better understand my excitement with how well Europe is using 'smart power' and 'social capitalism' to care for its member states and draw more and more of Europe into the E.U. Many other countries and regional clusters are studying Europe's model very closely. Great and informed 'read' although Hill's enthusiasm will sometimes seem 'over the top' for many of my fellow U.S.-Americans.
-- Lloyd Auchard, West Sussex, England transplanted from San Francisco

My main concern is to add another '5' to the evaluations of this fine book. All politically concerned Americans should read this book to learn that there is a viable alternative to the dead-end politics as usual which characterizes the US. Unfortunately, as Hill suggests, America's antiquated constitution, blinkered individualist ideology, biased media, and corporate dominance make it unlikely that the US will turn toward the European Way. The US is rather a spectacular slow motion train wreck, complete with rock stars, athletes in tights, an Air Force fly-over, and well-advertised corporate sponsorship. Thus my goal is to emigrate to Europe before I die. I hope that my children and grandchildren do likewise.