In my opinion, the European model has a lot of good features that the U.S. should learn from. Universal health care is probably the biggest one.

But I also think that the non-unified nature of the European viewpoint makes it easy for Europeans to avoid seeing problems in their own system, while the massive American media makes it easy to see problems in America.

For example, what is the actual situation with the Mafia today in Southern Italy and Sicily? I was in the bookstore here the other day looking at a tourist guide to southern Italy. I forget which one it was; one of the popular ones with lots of pictures. The book was simply FULL of cautions about crime and how the country is run by the Mafia and how striking it is that there is essentially no governmental presence in Sicily and the south of Italy. A recent book on the Mafia ("Cosa Nostra - a history of the Sicilian Mafia," by John Dickie, senior lecturer in Italian at the University of London) says "The best way of avoiding political contact with the mafia is by staying out of power--which is where the Left has been in Sicily for most of its history." And when I read stuff like this: http://www.centroimpastato.it/otherlang/mcdonald.php3 what am I supposed to think? Obviously there have been a bunch of scandals about Berlusconi; do they reflect the European way of doing things or should the situation be more fairly compared to, say, politics in New Jersey?

Now I have no idea whether this stuff reflects the reality of Italy. I've never been to the south of Italy and these authors may just have some sort of vendetta going against it. Perhaps it's just another example of the Anglo-Saxon press on an anti-Europe tirade. Or perhaps it simply reflects how it is on the ground in Italy. How am I supposed to judge that? What do the Irish or the Belgians think about southern Italy? How does southern Italy compare to, say, Alabama?

Basically, how do you compare Europe with America?

Another small example: France relies heavily on nuclear power generation while Germany closes nuke plants, so which better characterizes the "European" attitude towards nuclear power? Why is the French left so out of line compared to practically all other leftist parties on this subject?

There are plenty of other examples, which I've listed in the past and won't bother to list again.

The point I'm trying to make is that it is very, very hard to compare societies. Even using published statistics is hard, because of different assumptions and interpretations and expectations. Europeans come over to Florida and think they understand America. Americans go over to London and think they understand Europe. Neither has a clue about the other.