email from loyal reader

The email heading was "Question for smart guy", which is probably doing me more justice than I deserve... but it's a good question: "How do West Europeans do it?"

When I was assigned to The NATO School as an instructor in the mid-1990s, I was amazed at how much better the quality of life was for West Europeans compared to us Americans (e.g., vacation days, work hours, salaries, even stress levels).

Some Americans said that they (West Europeans) could not keep it up . . . globalization would force them into the same declining quality of life as most Americans experience.

Well, it's over a decade later and the quality of life gap seems to continue widening in West Europeans' favor. How come?

It's understandable that America cannot compete against countries that pay their workers one tenth of what Americans get paid. So there's a race for the bottom.

How do the West Europeans do it?

I'll add my 2-cents worth of observation: on trips to Germany to visit wife's family, we've been simply amazed by 'social safety net' available - mandatory vacations, pretty much free medical care.

So... yes, how do they do it?
(and... more to the point: why can't we???)