"In France and Germany, students are being forced to undergo a dangerous indoctrination. Taught that economic principles such as capitalism, free markets, and entrepreneurship are savage, unhealthy, and immoral, these children are raised on a diet of prejudice and bias." ... "Taught that the free market is a dangerous wilderness, twice as many Germans as Americans tell pollsters that you should not start a business if you think it might fail."
Is this guy supposed to be educated ? I was raised in France and I feel less alienated than the author of this article. He sounds like Moses coming down from his hill with the tables of laws.<p>United States are the epicenter of the economical world without any doubt, the ultimate place for entrepreneurs for sure, "the place where it happens", but history teaches us at least 3 things :<p>1/ Portugal was this place before (hello America), Spain was before (gold from America), Holland was before (beginning of world commerce, main Harbor of the world), England was before (industrial revolution), etc.<p>So today it is the turn of the United States to hold this place, but tommorow it might be China (who knows) and I don't think you'll appreciate what Chinese reporters have to say about your lifestyle (like not living as an ants colony wich is prejudiciable to your economy).<p>2/ France has never been the epicenter of the economical world in it's history, it has never been the #1 power in the world, never. And with our strategic geographical position in Europe it's pretty ironic. It's not that we didn't try, but the reasons are cultural, and they take their roots far beyond socialism.<p>3/ You can't have it all. The reasons why France is #1 tourism destination in the world are also the reasons why we weren't the #1 power at any time in our history.<p>France is undergoing a serious cultural crisis right now, and economy is certainly not our strongest skill, but a lot of our problems come from deliberate choices of lifestyle. You cannot have it all. It should not be so hard to understand that there are different kind of lifestyles that all come with their pro and cons. Especially for a traveled reporter.
Great article that is politically unpopular. Nice use of textbooks as examples, unemployment rates, labor policies -- you could go on with this theme to any amount of detail required by the naysayers here. Sure it's a commentary, but that's what analysis pieces are supposed to be like. You can question whether the thesis was supported or not -- I found it adequately done for the genre.<p>But the most interesting part of the piece is the reaction from the commenters here. The things attacked in the article -- nice cushy jobs for life, the view of politics as the marxist battle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, the view that political protest is required for job creation -- that's all part of the modern narrative in many colleges. So it's no surprise that such an attack would elicit so many apologists for the Germans and French.<p>I love the Germans and French, but you don't see very many startups at all coming out of there. I know I would never want to try a startup there nor would I want to take a well-developed company to one of these countries. For those of you who disagree, here's your chance! Go found a great startup in France and let us know how it went for you. BTW, good luck with the local workforce, governmental regulations, and pervasive politics.
"In 2004, a bread roll cost 40 cents. For the wheat that went into it, the farmer received less than 2 cents. What do you think about that?"<p>Am I supposed to be alarmed by this question? It looks to me to be an invitation to an interesting line of thougt. "Where'd the other 38 cents go?" is the obvious next question. Answering it would, I suppose, reveal other players in the production- and supply-chain, and would probably indicate that the farmer received a fair price. It might even lead one to consider other ideas like economies of scale and the role of industrialization in agriculture. And so on.<p>This article is almost comically biased. Replace a few pejoratives with antonyms and the author's unreasonableness becomes clear: In Texas, they're not "filling students with negative preconceptions and suspicions about businesses and the people who run them." No, they're "filling students with positive preconceptions and faith about businesses and the people who run them."<p>Are we supposed to prefer the latter?
"Taught that economic principles such as capitalism, free markets, and entrepreneurship are savage, unhealthy, and immoral, these children are raised on a diet of prejudice and bias."<p>I have to say this in case anyone's got any illusions: this is a different Europe from the one I live in. I mean, the French go on about how the "Anglo-Saxon" work ethic is polluting their culture, and in the UK people will wish you luck if you start a business, while secretly hoping you'll fail. I'm sure other countries have their problems too, but overall Europe is a good place to live, work and do business.<p>We don't "do" Silicon Valley because it's not how things are done here. Whether or not they should be is the subject of another, far more interesting essay than the one in the title.
Probably the most obviously bad attempt at passing "free market" propaganda as some kind of "study" I've read recently, so biased to the point of being infantile.<p>It has "reddit" politics section material written all over it. Mind-shattering bad in almost any conceivably way, from the premises to the treatment of "evidences".
A lot of the comments here seem to think you can dismiss an article by detecting its bias. You need to actually refute an argument with facts to to dismiss it right?
>Millions of children are being raised on prejudice and disinformation. Educated in schools that teach a skewed ideology, they are exposed to a dogma that runs counter to core beliefs shared by many other Western countries.<p>Doesn't this statement apply equally well to American schools, from a European point of view?<p>It would be possible to write an interesting, informative article contrasting the values taught in Europe and the US without being so inflammatory. And I expect it would be more constructive. Scorn is cheap and easy.
"Taught that the free market is a dangerous wilderness, twice as many Germans as Americans tell pollsters that you should not start a business if you think it might fail."
I think it's fair to ask why there aren't any silicon valleys in Europe. But you should also ask why there aren't any other silicon valleys in the United States.<p>A better study would be to take silicon valley out of the picture, and then compare the "best of the rest". How does the start up scene in Copenhagen compare with Seattle? Berlin and Austin? Boston and Oxford?<p>I have a feeling US based cities would compare favorably, but not as dramatically, and perhaps at a higher social cost.
"In 2004 a bread roll cost 40 cents. For wheat that went into it the farmer received less than 2 cents. What do you think of that?"<p>I think that the bread makers should be fairly compensated for turning raw material, like grain, into edible prodcuts. If the farmers want more of the cut they should band together and form a co-op to negotiate contracts for better compensation.
I can't say much about Germany and France, but in The Netherlands there is a rich and highly active entrepreneurship culture. At Delft University of Technology, where I study, high-tech start-ups are increasingly being founded and are supported by the University's incubator.<p>In fact, just today I attended a lecture by Dr. Bert Twaalfhoven. He is one of Europe's premier entrepreneurs and is well known for having founded over 50 high-tech companies.<p>I think that, especially in current times, entrepreneurship is becoming a global phenomenon. In places like Delft, among others in Europe, there is fertile breeding ground for high-tech start-ups.
Berlin is a hotbed of entrepreneurialism and creativity. Movie making, web 2.0 stuff, they have it all. It's a fun, cheap party. Smart people are moving there, and successful people stay. Prenzlauerberg has the highest fertility rate not ony for germany, but all of continental europe.<p>Germany'll be doing fine long after foreignpolicy.com's idiot anglo american backers slide into a quagmire of expensive energy, stupid land use, collapsing national currency, and corrupt warmongering.