The Myth of European Superiority

Liberals and their shills in the mainstream media have been trumpeting the benefits of European society- low crime, high benefits and so forth, for as long as I can remember. These arguments are used primarily to convince wary Americans that the European model is vastly superior to ours. However, is this view of the EU really true? Recently I have seen two articles that suggest this may not in fact be the case.

Firstly, in an article on Trading Markets.com, the European Union was celebrating the fact that unemployment had dropped to the lowest rate in twenty-five year- to a mere 6.9 percent. As reported by TradingMarkets.com,

The average unemployment rate in major European Union (EU) countries stands at 6.9 percent and is the lowest in 25 years, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Tuesday.

"I very much welcome the European Growth and Jobs Monitor's main message: that despite the decade-long defeatism of the cynics -- Lisbon is working," Barroso said in a statement on the newly-released European Growth and Jobs Monitor, a competitiveness ranking jointly developed by German insurer Allianz SE and the Brussels-based think tank Lisbon Council.

The study aims to measure the performance of 14 European countries in implementing the so-called Lisbon Growth and Jobs Strategy.

Of course, this is still a full two percentage points above the US unemployment rate, which was recorded as being 4.9 in the last reports from the US government. Remind me again about the European Union's superior economy?

Secondly, it appears that the supposed safe havens European cities are so often presented to be is also a myth. And the answer appears to be yes. It is well-known that since the British disarmed the population, violent crime in Britain has skyrocketed. A study by Sean O'Neill of the London Telegraph concluded (perhaps surprisingly) that the United States is among the middle-ranking countries in crime statistics- the list is dominated by European countries. Mr. O'Neill writes that,

PEOPLE living in England and Wales are at greater risk of falling victim to crime than citizens of most other industrialised nations, according to a study published yesterday.

The International Crime Victims Survey, based on 34,000 telephone interviews across 17 countries, found that 26 per cent of people - more than one in four - in England and Wales had been victims of crime in 1999. The figure for Scotland was 23 per cent and in Northern Ireland 15 per cent.

...

After Australia and England and Wales, the highest prevalence of crime was in Holland (25 per cent), Sweden (25 per cent) and Canada (24 per cent). The United States, despite its high murder rate, was among the middle ranking countries with a 21 per cent victimisation rate.

However, in this area, England is definitely not alone. It appears that other European cities are also experiencing similarly high crime rates. The Power Line blog reported on an article first published in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten which lamented the fact that crime in Oslo, Norway's capital city, is now four times as high as in New York- long the city that set the standard for Europeans to deplore the United States' crime. The newspaper goes on to report that,

Oslo had the highest rate per person in Scandinavia in terms of reported crimes, with 90 reported crimes per 1,000.

Copenhagen had 50 crimes reported per 1,000 and Stockholm had 79.

In New York, there were 22 reported crimes per 1,000 inhabitants.

This means there were four times as many reported crimes per person in Oslo as in New York.

So in other words, in any one of the Scandinavian capitals, a resident or visitor is far more likely to be the victim of a crime than in infamously violent New York? And the mainstream media have managed to completely ignore this little statistic? Hmmm. I wonder if the statistics were reversed, how many US and European front pages would be screaming about how violent the United States is and how we need more gun control? Oh, wait- this is the mainstream media- they are defined by their lack of principle and objectivity.

Between these stories, is it any wonder that Americans are somewhat reluctant to adopt the EU's high taxes, low level of personal protection, complete lack of military muscle to defend themselves and their willingness to welcome aliens who have no interest in assimilation, only invasion and conquest?