a world that just might work
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A clip on storytelling. Click to learn more.
![TOM GEOGHAGEN
WERE YOU BORN ON
THE WRONG CONTINENT?
How European Model Can Help You Get a Life
Learn more at tomgeoghagen.com
We hear about the trouble Europe is in. The debt crisis in Greece and Ireland, perhaps Spain and Portugal, is threatening the whole continent. But while the bad news of the Euro crisis makes headlines in the US, what does not made headlines is the good news of a quiet revolution that has been taking place in Europe.
The European Union, 27 member nations with a half billion people, has become the largest, wealthiest trading bloc in the world, producing nearly a third of the world’s economy – nearly as large as the U.S. and China combined. Europe has more Fortune 500 companies than either the US, China or Japan.
European nations are rated by the World Health Organization as having the best health care systems in the world. Yet they spend far less than the United States for universal coverage, even as U.S. health care is ranked 37th.
Europe leads in confronting global climate change with renewable energy technologies like solar and wind power, conservation and “green design,” creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in the process. Europe is twice as energy efficient as the US and their ecological “footprint” (the amount of the earth’s capacity that a population consumes) is about half that of the United States for the same standard of living.
Now let me make it personal -- we all know that unemployment is widespread and perhaps becoming chronic in the US. But did you know that when Americans have jobs, we work much longer hours than their peers in Europe? Before the recession, American workers were working 1,804 hours per year versus 1,436 hours for Germans – the equivalent of nine extra 40-hour work weeks per year.
In his new book, WERE YOU BORN ON THE WRONG CONTINENT?, today’s guest, THOMAS GEOGHEGAN, makes a strong case that European social democracies – particularly Germany – have some lessons and models that might make life a lot more livable. Not only that, they could help us keep our jobs.
In comparison to the U.S., the Germans have six weeks of federally mandated vacation, free university tuition, nursing care, and childcare. But you’ve heard the arguments for years about how those wussy Europeans can’t compete in a global economy. You’ve heard that so many times, you might believe it. But like so many things, the media repeats endlessly, it’s just not true.
According to Geoghagen, “Since 2003, it’s not China but Germany, that colossus of European socialism, that has either led the world in export sales or at least been tied for first. Even as we in the United States fall more deeply into the clutches of our foreign creditors—China foremost among them—Germany has somehow managed to create a high-wage, unionized economy without shipping all its jobs abroad or creating a massive trade deficit, or any trade deficit at all. And even as the Germans outsell the United States, they manage to take six weeks of vacation every year. They’re beating us with one hand tied behind their back.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
KEN AUSUBEL
Founder/Director, Bioneers Conferences
TOM LINZEY
Battling Corporate Constitutional Rights
My intention is that if you listen to the show five or ten times, you begin to see how we could do things differently -- education, health care, politics, business, media, community. You begin to see a future of revolutionary, evolutionary, and visionary success..
Much of these new ways arise out of a vision that reality is not dead, mechanical, or separate, but rather alive, evolving, and composed of interdependent systems. This worldview has been shared by indigenous peoples for millennia, revealed by science since early in the 20th century, and obvious every time we walk outside or look into the eyes of another living creature.
And it is this world view that inspires the Bioneers conferences that take place each fall in San Rafael CA and now stream via satellite to sites across the country. The conference is a gathering of scientific and social innovators who are developing and implementing visionary and practical models for restoring the Earth, and its communities and people.
****************
According to Tom Linzey, Executive Director of The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, “Without democratic control over major decisions governing the health and welfare of our communities, our planet and communities are set on a suicide run.
We need a new story that is written by all of us to deal with the crises that we now face. We need a new story that secures the rights and liberties of people -- not corporations -- and that protects, preserves, and restores this planet of ours. We need a new story that writes a new system of governance and builds upon the work of people who have been trying to write a new story for generations.
That means beginning to think in new ways -- not thinking in terms of "what we can get", but asking ourselves the forgotten question of "what do we want?" and "what do we need?" to ensure the survival of our communities and the survival of this planet.
...[We must realize] that our role, as "we the people" is not limited to decisions about paper versus plastic. Our role, instead, is to define the powers of corporations within our communities and our nation.
We're here to define which corporations may have the privilege of operating within our communities, and which ones will not. We're here to define how corporations build, manage, manufacture, dispose, and use -- precisely because those decisions produce the spotfires that have kept us busy for decades.
And those corporations that refuse to follow our rules? We'll bar them from obtaining the privilege of doing business in our communities.](Index_2_files/shapeimage_10.png)
----------------------------------------------
For Weekly Podcast
For guests’ books
