The European dream: building sustainable development in a globally connected world

E: The Environmental Magazine, March-April, 2005 by Jeremy Rifkin

A growing number of Americans are beginning to wonder why Europe has leaped ahead of the U.S. to become the most environmentally advanced political space in the world today. To understand why Europe has left America behind in the race to create a sustainable society, we need to look at the very different dreams that characterize the American and European frame of mind.

Ask Americans what they most admire about the U.S.A. and they will likely cite the individual opportunity to get ahead--at least until recently. The American Dream is based on a simple but compelling covenant: Anyone, regardless of the station to which they are born, can leverage a good public education, determination and hard work to become a success in life. We can go from "rags to riches."

Ask a European what they most admire about Europe and they will invariably say "the quality of life." Eight out of 10 Europeans say they are happy with their lives and when asked what they believe to be the most important legacy of the 20th century, 58 percent of Europeans picked their quality of life, putting it second only to freedom in a list of 11 legacies.

While the American Dream emphasizes individual success, the European Dream emphasizes collective well-being. The reason for this lies in the divergent histories of the two continents. America's founders came over from Europe 200 years ago in the waning days of the Protestant Reformation and the early days of the European Enlightenment. They took these two streams of European thought, froze them in time, and kept them alive in their purest form until today. Americans are the most devoutly Christian and Protestant people in the industrial world and the fiercest champions of the capitalist marketplace and the nation-state.

Both the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment emphasized the central role of the individual in history: John Calvin exhorted the faithful that every person stands alone with their God. Adam Smith, in turn, argued that every individual pursues their own self interest in the marketplace. This individualist strain fit the American context far better than it did the European setting. In a wide-open frontier, every new immigrant did indeed stand alone and had to secure their survival with little or no social supports. Americans, even today, are taught by their parents that to be free they must learn to be self-sufficient and independent, and that they cannot depend on others.

Europeans, however, never fully bought the idea of the individual alone in the universe. Europe was already densely populated and without a frontier by the late 18th century. Walled cities and tightly packed human settlement demanded a more communal way of life. While Americans defined freedom in terms of individual autonomy and mobility, Europeans defined freedom by their communal relationships.

In America there was enough cheap and free land and resources so that newcomers could become rich. In Europe, well-defined class boundaries--a remnant of the feudal aristocracy--made it far more difficult for an individual born in a lesser station of life to rise to the top and become wealthy. So while Americans preferred to pursue happiness individually, Europeans pursued happiness collectively by emphasizing the quality of life of the community. Today, Americans devote less than 11 percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to social benefits, compared to 26 percent in Europe.

DOING IT BETTER

So, what does Europe do better than America? It works hard to create a remarkably high quality of life for all of its people.

The European Dream focuses on inclusivity, diversity, sustainable development, social rights and universal human rights. And it works. While Americans are 28 percent wealthier per capita than Europeans, in many ways, Europeans experience a higher quality of life, clear evidence that, in the long run, cooperation rather than competition is sometimes a surer path to happiness.

Europe and the U.S. have nearly opposite approaches to the question of environmental stewardship. At the heart of the difference is the way Americans and Europeans perceive risk. We Americans take pride in being a risk-taking people. We come from immigrant stock, people who risked their lives to journey to the new world and start over, often with only a few coins in their pockets and a dream of a better life. When Europeans and others are asked what they most admire about Americans, our risk-taking, "can-do" attitude generally tops the list. Where others see difficulties and obstacles, Americans see opportunities.

Our optimism is deeply entwined with our faith in science and technology. It has been said that Americans are a nation of tinkerers. When I was growing up, the engineer was held in as high esteem as the cowboy, admired for his efforts to improve the lot of society and contribute to the progress and welfare of civilization.

On the other side of the water, the sensibilities are different. It's not that Europeans aren't inventive. One could make the case that over the course of history Europe has produced most of the great scientific insights and not a few of the major inventions. But with their longer histories, Europeans are far more mindful of the dark side of science and technology.