Just a brief comment. Thanks first your extended reply. I don't know Europe's direction, but I am afraid to agree that Europe is being influenced by US economic policy since Reagan, the free market ideas that not only put us in great debt, but the inqualities it produced and the complete ignorance, even demonization, of the "poor," an evil word these days in America, who have suffered under the free market. They just can't compete. No American politician would today speak up for the poor. The "middle class" is the thing, the same group that bought into the "greed" ethic and suffered losses to the wealthy as income and wealth shifted upward.

My impression really came from watching Canada elect a right wing Reaganite, while it seemed that France did the same thing with Sarkosy, while the social democrats lost miserably. It seems as if a stable social democracy can be easily upset if one can convince ordinary people that greed is good, the lazy poor are holding them back, and the rich can make us all rich if we only let them have more of their own money, i.e., low taxes.