A quote from James K. Glassman on Tech Central Station, 21 October 2005

There isn’t just a single Europe. The countries on the outer edges – Britain, Poland, Ireland, Portugal, Estonia, and so on – remain fairly aspirational, leaning in the direction of American liberalism (in the best sense of that word – a tendency to place freedom, economic and personal, number-one on a list of values). They haven't given in to the smug complacency of France, Germany, Belgium and (I’m sad to say) Spain. Italy, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian countries are somewhere in between. [...] But Europeans will have to find their own path. My concern is with Americans. Is it inevitable that, as we grow more prosperous, we will become more like Europe – losing initiative, insisting that our governments coddle us?