Because capitalism has won the battle of competing economic systems, we never really question it's nature. Now in many ways it's a wonderful thing. Nanotechnology, reasonably priced socks, and Ed Sheeran. Wow, it's amazing. The only problem is it depends on constant endlessly expanding consumption, and that's destroying the planet. There are efforts to ameliorate defects, windpower, recycling, but as a child of left wing parents I know an empty gesture when I see one! One has a feeling, born out of experience, that things are better run in Europe than they are here, the roads are better, the trains aren't run on some nightmarish scheme devised by Hieronymous Bosch PLC, food is better and healthier, government at local and state level seems to have more sense and competence. The reason for this, perhaps more than every other: every nation in Europe lost the war. Either they were defeated by the Allies like Germany and Italy, or they were defeated and invaded by the Germans. One way or another this defeat led to them getting a Fresh Start, a catastrophe on such a scale inevitably led to these countries having to reassess all their government structures and ways of doing things, from top to bottom a clean sweep introducing a new mode of things not affected by attitudes unchanged since the nineteenth century. Those structures and individuals that had brought their countries to defeat were removed and replaced with more efficient ones. Whereas in Britain, because we won, we were left with the sense that the way we did things, ran our factories and cities, managed our Health Service, was with all its snobberies, massive inefficiencies and sheer stupidness, the correct way to do this. Who won the war in Europe? Us and Russia, says it all. If we ever want to experience happiness and prosperity, what we need to do is lose a war to somebody. And quick.
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