Stark reality of the American dream- by Humphrey Hawksley
A recent survey by the Centre for Economic Performance in London, on how easy or difficult it was to get rich in different parts of the world - or if not rich, at least move out of poverty found that if you are born into poverty in the US, you are actually more likely to remain in poverty than in other countries in Europe, the Nordic countries, even Canada, which you would think would not be that different. In Europe or just across the border in Canada, they would be more likely to get social security, but in America, society is starkly divided into winners and losers. Strangely, though, there seemed to be little resentment or blame of government. American culture is about self-reliance and the individual fighting a way through. In Europe, the government is entwined with a lot of what we do, yet in America, the more say the government has over you, the more you carry a sense of failure. Yet millions still yearn to come and take up the challenge. A million a year settle to start the process of becoming American citizens. Half a million actually take the oath. They came from everywhere to be sworn in: Britain, France, Iran, Iraq - the name of every country read out, to cheers, as if we were at the Oscars and, of course, the waving of American flags. "Why do you want to live here and not in Europe?" we asked a young woman from Ethiopia, who tipped back her Seattle Mariners baseball cap and looked at us as if we were completely mad. "Europe," she said disdainfully. "What do they ever hope for in Europe? Here they have a law that you can dream to be happy." Note by EU-Digest - If we in Europe want to make our EU a success, maybe that's a thought we should work on instead of asking what the EU can do for us.
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