Samuel Gregg’s book Becoming Europe details the faltering economies of many European nations, and offers a prescription of how and why America can avoid the same fate. Encounter Books has produced the following whiteboard to illustrate the book’s main points.

Read more on Is America Becoming Europe? A Whiteboard…

“[He] belongs more in an insane asylum than at the head of a multinational corporation.”

That was the reaction by a French union official to an amusingly harsh letter by Maurice Taylor, chief executive of tire maker Titan. Taylor was initially interested in buying the French tire factory, which is facing closure following five years of unsuccessful negotiations with unions to enhance its competitiveness. However, after visiting the plant three times, he wrote a letter to France’s industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, saying: “Sir, you would like to open discussions with Titan. You think we’re that stupid?”

Taylor says the plant’s 1,173 workers “have one hour for their lunch, they talk for three hours and they work for three hours. I said this directly to their union leaders; they replied that’s the way it is in France.” The Titan CEO added:

“Titan has money and the know-how to produce tyres. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government. The French farmer wants cheap tyres. He doesn’t care if those tyres come from China or India and these governments are subsidising them. Your government doesn’t care either: ‘We’re French!’

Titan is going to buy a Chinese tyre company or an Indian one, pay less than one euro per hour wage and ship all the tyres France needs. You can keep the so-called workers.

Taylor isn’t exaggerating the problems caused by French unions. In his new book, Becoming Europe, Acton’s Director of Research Samuel Gregg writes,
Read more on Like Putting a Beret on a Cowboy…

On National Review Online, Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg reflects on President Obama’s State of the Union address last night, and flags the “reality-denial” that is expressed by “a few token references to free enterprise and rewarding individual initiative (to reassure us we’re still living in America instead of just another declining European social democracy).” More:

Read more on Samuel Gregg: An Alternate Reality State of the Union Address…

Georgene Rice recently interviewed Samuel Gregg about his latest book, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America can Avoid a European Future.  Her show airs on KDPQ FM in Portland, Oregon.

Read more on Audio: Samuel Gregg Discusses ‘Becoming Europe’ on the Georgene Rice Show…

Recently Samuel Gregg talked with Jack Riccardi from KTSA 550 San Antonio about Gregg’s new book Becoming Europe.

Listen to the entire interview here:

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Theodore Dalrymple also recently reviewed Becoming Europe on the Library of Law and Liberty’s Liberty Law Blog. He said:

Read more on Audio: Samuel Gregg Discusses ‘Becoming Europe’ on the Jack Riccardi Show…

America, for the obvious reasons, holds strong ties to Europe. But it is a country that has primarily been associated with a distinctness and separation from the turmoil and practices of the continent. In his farewell address, George Washington famously warned Americans about remaining separate from European influence and declared, “History and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government.” Class strife, conflict, and instability already long characterized the European fabric at the time of the American Revolution. Likewise, many American colonists already thought of themselves as free and distinct before the revolt. At the time of the revolution, some 400 wealthy noble families controlled Great Britain. America had an aristocracy for sure, but it was much more merit based than Europe. It embodied a more egalitarian spirit, local communities were culturally connected and would have been suspicious of attempts at centralization. So obviously countless problems ignited and there was a fanning of flames when the Crown started making decrees and commands of the American colonists.

I have a copy of Sam Gregg’s Becoming Europe, which is next on my reading list. The recent calls for gun control and the curtailing of 2nd Amendment Rights out of Washington immediately reminded me more of the American – European divide. I’d point you to Gregg’s work for the formative economic study on our evolution towards European democratic socialism, but I want to make a few short observations on the topic, which might be beneficial to expand on after I read Becoming Europe. Read more on ‘Becoming Europe’ or Coming Full Circle?…

Acton’s Director of Research and author of Becoming Europe, Samuel Gregg, was featured yesterday on The RJ Moeller Show. Gregg talked about America’s drift towards “social democracy” and other economic themes in his new book; Moeller gives more detail at this post at Values & Capitalism. Click on the audio link below to hear the show.

Read more on Samuel Gregg: The RJ Moeller Show and ‘Becoming Europe’…

Samuel Gregg was recently on WORD-FM: Pittsburgh’s “The Ride Home with John and Kathy” to talk about Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future. They discuss many of the main themes of the book, including:  Americans’ changing attitude toward liberty and economic freedom, entitlements, and the welfare state.

Read more on Audio: Samuel Gregg on WORD-FM discussing ‘Becoming Europe’…

Matthew Feeney, assistant editor at Reason Magazine’s 24/7 blog, today reviews Samuel Gregg’s new book, Becoming Europe: Economic Decline, Culture, and How America Can Avoid a European Future. In his article titled “Europe: America’s Crystal Ball?” Feeney notes the similarity between Gregg’s views and many in the tea party movement who worry that “the U.S. is adopting similar norms and institutions [to Europe's current economic culture,] thereby losing what Tocqueville called Americans’ “spirit of enterprise.”

Read more on Review: Reason Magazine’s Matthew Feeney on ‘Becoming Europe’…

National Review Online asked Acton Research Director Samuel Gregg to weigh in on President Barack Obama’s second term inaugural address.

Gregg points to “our president’s worldview that the government is the primary way in which we address our common problems and realize our responsibilities and obligations to each other as citizens and as human beings.” He wonders if it has occurred to Obama that “many such responsibilities and obligations might be realized outside the realm of politics … ”

Read more on Samuel Gregg: Please put Tocqueville, Maritain on reading list, Mr. President…