Are Europeans just commies or are Americans wimps?

There's an old belief in America that if you work hard and do the right thing, you can strike it rich. Often, that's the reason given for the lack of serious action against fat cat executive comp plans. I know Americans *like* to think the country is the world leader for economic mobility but times have changed. The longer the US keeps believing the myth the longer the current system will remain. What jumps out in the debate in Europe is that executive salaries are comfortable but compared to the US, they are nothing. (Salaries in mainland Europe are generally lower than comparable jobs in the US as well.)

The point being raised by European economic ministers is perfectly valid, asking how business can ask for cutbacks for people at the lower end and then increase the executive pay. Whether their model is the right model or the wrong model is hard to say since they is only starting to gel as a pan-European movement. In the US, people complain, politicians schedule hearings and then nothing changes. Ever. Even the CEOs who lost billions for Wall Street are resting comfortably with cash made from the most recent mirage economy. Their companies are being propped up by taxpayer loans, begging for cash and the target of foreign acquisitions but they're doing just fine, thank you very much. Are we just wimps for accepting this?

Sitting overseas, it certainly looks like the US is a country stuck with too many old ideas that just fail to match the reality of today. We're not the competitive country we used to be but that we think we are. The US is not a country whose population enjoys discovery, regardless of the occasional NASA mission for ten people. We're no longer interested in the greater good and seemingly have no issue with increasingly two tiered society. The infamous boomer moto of the 1980s "greed is good" is not just on Wall Street, it's on Main Street. The GOP may have missed history class but we have been here before and we recovered to become better. Europe tends to dislike change but at the moment it is much further along on the issue of executive pay and others such climate change and science. We're drifting today whether people want to admit it or not. It's really time we get back to what the US does best, which is accepting and embracing change for the better.