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The American Dream is becoming ever more
elusive. Americans are increasingly overworked, underpaid,
squeezed for time, and unsure about their prospects for
a better life. One-third of all Americans say they no longer
believe in the American Dream.
While the American Dream is languishing,
says bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin, a new European
Dream is beginning to capture the attention and imagination
of the world. Twenty-five nations, representing 455 million
people, have joined together to create a United States of
Europe.
The European Union's $10.5 trillion GDP
now eclipses that of the United States, making it the largest
economy in the world. The EU is already the world's leading
exporter and largest internal trading market. Moreover,
much of Europe enjoys a longer life span and greater literacy,
and has less poverty and crime, less blight and sprawl,
longer vacations, and shorter commutes to work than we do
in the United States. When one considers what makes a people
great and what constitutes a better way of life, observes
Rifkin, Europe now surpasses America.
More important, Europe has become a giant
laboratory for rethinking humanity's future. In many respects,
the European Dream is the mirror opposite of the American
Dream. While the American Dream emphasizes unrestrained
economic growth, personal wealth, and the pursuit of individual
self-interest, the European Dream focuses more on sustainable
development, quality of life and the nurturing of community.
We Americans live (and die) by the work
ethic and the dictates of efficiency. Europeans place more
of a premium on leisure and even idleness. America has always
seen itself as a great melting pot. Europeans, instead,
prefer to preserve their rich multicultural diversity. We
believe in maintaining an unrivaled military presence in
the world. Europeans, by contrast, emphasize cooperation
and consensus over go-it-alone approaches to foreign policy.
All of this does not suggest that Europe
has suddenly become a utopia. Its problems, Rifkin cautions,
are complex and its weaknesses are glaringly transparent.
And, of course, Europeans' high-mindedness is often riddled
with hypocrisy. The point, however, is not whether Europeans
are living up to the dream they have for themselves. We
have never fully lived up to the American Dream. Rather,
what's crucial, notes Rifkin, is that Europe is articulating
a bold new vision for the future of humanity that differs,
in many of its most fundamental aspects, from America's.
Rifkin draws on more than twenty years of
personal experience working in Europe, where he has advised
heads of state and political parties, consulted with Europe's
leading companies, and helped spur grassroots environmental
and social justice campaigns. The author delves into the
history of Europe, from the medieval era to postmodernity,
to capture the soul of the new European consciousness.
Two hundred years ago, America's founders
created a new dream for humanity that transformed the world.
Today, suggests Rifkin, a new generation of Europeans is
creating a radical new dream -- one better suited to meet
the challenges of a globalizing world in the twenty-first
century.
One of the most popular social thinkers
of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of
The End of Work, The Biotech Century, The
Age of Access, and The Hydrogen Economy. A fellow
at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program at the
University of Pennsylvania, he is president of The Foundation
on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C.
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