Chapter 2: 17 ways Europe is more Conservative than America / 17 ways Europe is more right-wing than America
17 ways America is more left-wing than Europe / 17 ways the Left opposes making America more like Europe
The claim that the United States of America is more politically right-wing than Europe or that the Democratic party would be a right-wing or center-right party in Europe is such a red herring. People mention taxpayer-paid healthcare, a more generous welfare state, taxpayer-paid college/university and weapon laws, but not other issues.
I got most, but not all of my points from the following article and video:
7 ways Europe is more Conservative than the U.S. | by Swaroop Bhagavatula | Medium
6 ways the Left opposes making the US more like Europe (18:08)
Virtually every single democracy in the world requires people to present some form of identification before they vote. The two exceptions to this that I am aware of are Uganda and some States of the United States of America.
If hundreds of millions of poor and even illiterate people in India can obtain voter identification, I am pretty sure that the poor and members of minorities in the United States of America (where the poor are better off than most of the Indian middle class), can find the Department of Motor Vehicles office just fine. Not to mention how there are dozens of things in life that require identification, such as driving a car, writing a check, buying a firearm, and so much more.
2. Corporate taxes and regulations.
Before Trump was sworn into office, the United States of America had one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world at 35%, higher than any European country (with the exception of Greece, which had the corporate tax at 58% for "year 1" and 29% for "year 2").
No wonder why it was hard for many American businesses to get investments, especially small businesses which can not afford accountants or legal teams to make tax credits or write-offs for such businesses.
Wikipedia's article List of countries by tax rates as it appears on January 16, 2017 is my source for this.
Also, some, but not all European countries have simpler regulations than the United States Federal Government and some State Governments.
Liechtenstein, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden have not adopted the Euro as their currency.
3. Apprenticeships.
Many conservatives and libertarians believe that college is not for everyone, and that there should be programs for people who need job training but not a college degree. Apprenticeships are common many European countries, particularly Germany, a world leader in manufacturing.
4. Unlicensed Physicians.
Physician assistants and Nurse Practioners in America are typically not allowed to diagnose patients or prescribe medicine like their European counterparts. In Europe, less expensive procedures can be done by lower-skilled, less-expensive doctors while freeing up more expensive procedures by higher-skilled, more-expensive doctors. Also, European countries tend to be more permissive foreign trained and educated doctors to work in their juristiction than American States, which often require doctors to be educated in the United States, licensed in the United States (or in their particular state), or at a minimum do a complete residency to be licensed to practice medicine. This is a reason why Europe spends less on healthcare than America, and that is before I get into the regulatory capture, regulatory red-tape, and convoluted payment system.
5. Drug Approval Process.
Drugs take longer to get approved for sale in America than in Europe. Europe has a more decentralized drug approval process than America, not to mention the fact that Europe has less regulatory capture and many European countries have simpler and easier to understand regulations than America. European governments have more or less realized that market forces alone does a lot to prevent bad drugs from being placed on the market.
This is a reason why Europe spends less on healthcare than America, and that is before I get into the regulatory capture, regulatory red-tape, and convoluted payment system.
6. Infrastructure spending.
To quote from Swaroop Bhagavatula's article,
"Europe uses something called an Infrastructure Bank which leverages private capital to fund large scale infrastructure projects such as bridges, airports, etc." (Infrastructure and the European Investment Bank). "The private companies are obviously not doing it for free, they charge fees and tolls to cover their capital cost. Compare this to the U.S. where most infrastructure projects are funded by government money and for which you can’t contract out the work, it has to be done local union labor" (The U.S. Has Forgotten How to Do Infrastructure - Bloomberg)(Why U.S. Infrastructure Costs So Much - Bloomberg). "Europe has basically adopted a conservative, free market idea of privatizing infrastructure, whereas “free market” America builds infrastructure in a socialist way."
Freedom Alternative himself disagrees with Trump on the issue of infrastructure spending, but finds it surprising that many leftists disagree with Trump on infrastructure spending as well. When asked about the issue, Trump spoke like a classical European social democrat politician, seeing infrastructure spending as a job scheme to help the underprivileged, believes that local businesses should be used, and being open to government-private partnerships in rehabilitating and/or expanding American infrastructure.
7. Cutting waste in college campuses.
Many European college are actually no-frills compared to their American counterparts. European college students live off campus more often than their American counterparts.
8. Tort reform.
Many American states do not penalize people for being found wrong in civil court. Some European countries, however, has adopted the idea of "loser pays" as a way of discouraging frivolous lawsuits.
However, I personally have other ideas. I've read about the "lowest bidder" idea, in which neither party in a court case can spend more money on a trial than the other party. I have also read about another system called the "Oceanic system" (a reference to the imaginary country of Oceania, Constitution of Oceania), which is similar to the "lowest bidder", but instead both parties must agree to a court budget, and the richer party may contribute money to the poorer party if it so chooses, and anyone caught cheating with their budgets can be convicted for contempt of court by the jury. I favor the Oceanic system the most.
9. Restricted or no birthright citizenship.
The United States of America and Canada are the world's only two countries that practice birthright citizenship, called Jus soli, with almost no restrictions. Other western countries do practice Jus soli, but with varying restrictions.
10. 20 week abortion ban.
With the exception of Sweden (where the limit is set to 16 weeks), the United Kingdom (where the issue is unclear), and the Netherlands, no European country permits abortion after 14 weeks at the latest, and many are lower than that. Countries such as Poland, Malta, and Ireland set the limit at 0 weeks. Meanwhile, the authoritarian regimes of Vietnam, China, and North Korea seemingly have no limits.
Freedom Alternative is more anti-abortion than I am. I tolerate abortion for the first trimester (12 weeks), or for dead or deformed fetuses, though I really prefer that people use other forms of contraception.
11. Official language and language requirements.
Almost every single country in Europe and most countries in the world require immigrants to learn the official language or an official language.
Also, in countries like Mexico and Finland, being born in Mexico or Finland does not automatically make one a national or citizen, and Mexico goes to great lengths to differentiate between Mexican Nationals and Mexican Citizens (I know that Mexico is not part of Europe, but Freedom Alternative mentions Mexico).
12. Having one's documents in order and being identifiable.
In many European countries, having an identification card is compulsory by law, and law enforcement regularly conduct raids to arrest illegal aliens. There are factions of the left that oppose law enforcement like Immigration Customs Enforcement enforcing immigration laws.
I hate forcing people out of countries, but I reluctantly support immigration restrictions out of pure pragmatism.
13. Government-funded churches and monarchy.
European countries with state churches are:
. Denmark.
. England.
. Greece.
. Hungary.
. Iceland.
. Liechtenstein.
. Malta.
. Monaco.
. Norway.
I am one way opposed to monarchy, as that I am against gaining positions by birthright and not merit, or giving resources to people by birthright, and I am also a strong supporter of the Separation of Church and State.
14. Burka ban.
The Constitution of the United States, for the most part gives the States control over their internal affairs. This means that the Federal Government of the United States can not introduce or enforce a burka ban off of federal property or off of federal documents, and can not do a national burka ban. Other than that, only the States may enforce anti-mask laws and that is if, and only if, both the state's constitution AND judicial branch allow the enforcement of anti-mask laws.
European countries such as Romania, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France, and even the Muslim-majority countries of Chad, Morocco, and Tajikistan all have a national burka ban. Even Muslim-majority countries have Algeria, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Turkey all have restrictions of face coverings or even headscarves in at least some public buildings or public workplaces, which is still more than the United States Federal Government, which lacks such powers thanks to the Constitution.
Even in some states with anti-mask laws, wearing a mask is essentially only illegal if someone is trying to intimidate someone else, threatening someone else, or otherwise committing a crime, and wearing a mask for religious purposes is 100% legal. Even in in in a lot of conservative states, wearing a niqab, burka, etcetera, is perfectly legal, and even in states with anti-mask laws, anti-mask laws were written and passed as to combat criminals and the Ku Klux Klan, decades, or even over a century before America's modern problems with the Muslim world.
I agree with requiring people to show their face for identification purposes. But otherwise, I don't care much for burka bans. I see burka bans as window dressing for immigration problems (no pun intended), and actual immigration restrictions and enforcement of said restrictions are leaps and bounds more effective than banning people from covering their faces.
15. Whale hunting.
Norway, Iceland, and Denmark still permit whale hunting.
16. Conscription.
Austria, Finland, Greece, Switzerland, and Turkey all practice conscription. Denmark, Estonia, Lithuania, and Sweden also practice conscription, but less than 20% of young people are recruited.
17. LGBT rights.
A lot of people forget how late many European countries are when it comes to rights for queer people"
LGBT rights in the European Union #Member State laws on sexual orientation
Same-sex marriage in the United States #Local laws prior to Obergefell v. Hodges
Hate crime/speech laws: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Italy, Latvia.
Some anti-discrimination laws: Italy, Latvia, Poland.
Adoption: Bulgaria, Cyprus, Hungary (constitutional ban), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia. Czech Republic has additional restrictions.
Marriage: Bulgaria (constitutional ban), Croatia (constitutional ban), Czech Republic (pending), Greece, Hungary (constitutional ban), Latvia (constitutional ban), Lithuania (constitutional ban), Poland (constitutional ban), Romania, Slovakia (constitutional ban), Slovenia.
Civil union: Bulgaria, Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Slovakia, Romania.
Unregistered cohabitation: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Romania,
Conclusion.
So tell me again, who is more right-wing? And is the American Democratic party really a centrist, center-right or right-wing party now?
Lastly, America has the best free speech laws in the world.
NO other country matches the USA.
Even Switzerland has hate speech laws. They may be admirable for their gun rights and their lack of foreign intervention, but they have stricter free speech laws.
One more thing.
On an aggregate scale, I would say America is STILL much more libertarian than other countries combined. With the exception of Switzerland, I would say that America is the most libertarian country in the world.
Gun rights is the biggest reason. Sure, there are countries where you can own magazines of any capacity or semi-automatic centerfire rifles and handguns. There are also countries where you can conceal carry and obtain modern long guns without permits.
BUT HOW ABOUT ALL OF THEM COMBINED? The US is the only country where you have all of this COMBINED!
While there are a handful of countries with more relaxed gun laws (Yemen and Switzerland), the United States has HANDS-DOWN the most relaxed gun laws in the world, with most states not requiring any license to own or purchase any type of firearm. The only exceptions may be NFA items such as short-barreled rifles/shotguns, fully automatic firearms, silencers, and so forth. All other weapons can be purchased without any permit.
- You can own most firearms (including handguns and semi-automatic centerfire rifles) without a permit in most states. Name ONE country in Europe where you can purchase semi-auto centerfire rifles without a permit.
- Unlimited magazine capacity. Most states thankfully DO NOT restrict the size of firearm magazines that can be sold to the public.
- Fully automatic firearms can be legally owned by private citizens in most states; the process is quite straightforward. The only problem is the cost; the only full auto firearms legal for private ownership are the ones registered on or before May 19, 1986 which makes them far too expensive for most people to own.
- Suppressors are legal to own in most states if registered with the feds. Same with short-barreled rifles/shotguns.
- Concealed carry is legal WITHOUT A PERMIT in many states. Same with open carry; it is legal without a permit in most states.
- Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states.
- A few states are free from income tax.
- Several states allow recreational cannabis.
- You can drive before you are 18 in virtually all states.
- Refuse vaccine? No problem.
- No sales taxes in a number of states
Honestly, the US, on an aggregate scale, looks pretty good from a libertarian standpoint.
Sure, there are other countries where you can homeschool your kids. There are other countries where you can own semi-automatic centerfire rifles, firearm magazines of any capacity, and handguns.
There are other countries where you can conceal carry.
There are other countries free of income tax or property tax.
There are other countries free of sales tax.
There are other countries which allow marijuana.
There are even a few which allow full auto weapons.
But ALL OF THIS COMBINED?
ONLY AMERICA.
Then again, I am a Bible-believing Christian (Independent Baptist) and as such, my political views lean conservative. I most certainly am not concerned with drug legalization, LGBTQ rights, or prostitution rights. I am most certainly NOT concerned with social liberalism.
If drugs were all banned, I would not mind. If alcohol were banned, I would not mind. If LGBTQ rights were completely eliminated, I would not care at all. If prostitution were banned, I would not mind at all.
I care mainly about the following: Gun rights, low taxes, homeschooling rights, and free speech.