Hi there, Some things to think about: The European Union is wealthier[1] than the US; Europe as a whole is far wealthier. You are assuming that a free and op

Hi there, Some things to think about: The European Union is wealthier[1] than the US; Europe as a whole is far wealthier. You are assuming that a free and open society is a necessary condition for entrepreneurship, innovation, and thus wealth creation. This may not be the case, certainly it has never been proven. Furthermore, you speak about free and open in absolute terms though of course these concepts are relative concepts and cut across many categories. Slavoj Zizek (a European philosopher) has questioned[2] this unspoken connection - as have many others. The idea now is that capitalism with Asian features (by which is meant a capitalist system that does not go hand in hand with multi-party democracy) might actually be more efficient and more voracious than Western style capitalism. Given the laws passed by congress in the last 10 years you would have to be deaf and blind not to have noticed the increasing hostility[3] towards liberty and openness in the US. In no particular order you have: pervasive wiretapping, the USA PATRIOT act, humiliation at the border, the executive assassination program (of US citizens!), largest prison population in the world in percentage and absolute terms, to name but a few off the top of my head. I think the US needs to do a little bit more than just rearranging deck-chairs on what ostensibly looks like a ship in danger of sinking. [1] https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html?countryName=European%20Union&countryCode=ee&regionCode=eu&rank=1#ee https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/... [2] http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/living-end-times-slavoj-zizek/ http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/living-end-times-slavoj-zizek... [3] http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=civilliberties&ordering=beginDate+descending&timeperiod= http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=civillib...