American Dream vs. European Dream
A few days ago, I read an interesting article from Jeremy Rifkin that compares American Dream and European Dream. Jeremy is an American who is also the author of “European Dream” book. What’s this article all about?
Jeremy starts with the fact that America has been a refuge for every human being who has ever dreamed of a better life (including myself about 5-6 years ago). Unfortunately, he says that America is no longer a great country. He compares many facts between United States and European Union. EU itself has been growing as another superpower “states” in Europe.
I won’t repeat all Jeremy’s comparison here; you can read it yourself from the link above. One thing that I feel just right after moving to North America is vacation days. I was used to have 6 weeks vacation per year in Europe, and now I have only half of it in North America (3 weeks). Perhaps Jeremy is right saying that Americans “live to work” while European “work to live”.
Honestly, I agree with most of Jeremy’s facts about American vs. European dream. It is a very interesting article anyway because a lot of people, at least in my home country, are still thinking that the States is their dream land (just like what Jeremy has mentioned). Many of my friends in the high school and university are now working and living in the States. They didn’t consider European at all (may be language is one of the problems).
Let’s see what is going to happen in the future… is EU really becoming a dream country for people who wants a better life?
August 9th, 2006 at 11:53 am
[...] On the other hand, I know that the US government is trying to get rid of new immigrants. Many people, especially from developing countries, have been trying to make their American Dreams come true. They try many ways (sometimes illegal) to come to the US. Well… a lot of stories about that. [...]