[p2p-research] What's different about this economic downturn? -- the severe unemployment

[Michel Bauwens]

I would venture that, with the exception of Berlusconi's Italy, most
European governments are substantially less in the pocket of private
interests.

Comparing cultures is a tricky business. In many countries, European
companies would be internally more hierarchical than U.S. companies, less so
than Japanese ones ... though that is compensated by stronger employee
rights in Europe, and the collective culture of East Asia (i.e.
paternalistic goodwill to the whole community of employees)

Gauging 'efficiency' in different models is difficult, because they are most
like more efficient in different areas ...

Michel

On Mon, Sep 7, 2009 at 7:46 PM, Samuel Rose <samuel.rose at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Hi Andrew, I'll leave it up to your judgment, I must admit never having
> > heard of objective metrics proven American companies to be  better than
> > European ones, whether there is a U.S. superiority. It is true that U.S.
> > workers generally work longer hours than their European counterpart, but
> I
> > have yet to see that this improves their decision-making. Anyway, that
> could
> > be my own euro-bias about well-rested minds, having a healthy social life
> > and time to read things that are unrelated to the job at hand. But I
> welcome
> > any stats that disprove this.
> >
> > Apart from that, your arguments complement rather than contradict my
> > comparison with the East Asian choice of using more people for the same
> work
> > amount. In addition, educational levels still have to catch up (of course
> > this is only true 'on average', there are plenty of outstanding people on
> > this side of the ocean).
> >
>
>
> Heh,
>
> As an American who has worked for American companies for 2 decades, I
> can tell you that American companies can and do outperform Euopean
> companies in the following areas:
>
> 1. Financial fraud: I would venture to guess that there is far more
> financial fraud happening in US companies than European
>
> 2. Overcompensation of executives: Surely, American corporate
> executives are the most overcompensated people on the face of this
> planet. Please correct me if I am wrong.
>
> 3. Government lobbying: American corporations are just really, really
> good at lobbying the US government into subsidizing their existence. I
> would go so far as to suggest that many of America's largest
> corporations would not even be able to remain in existence without the
> subsidization and favoritism of government (nevermind that small
> business, which receives basically no subsidy, is around 50% of US
> GDP)
>
> 4. Public Relations manipulation: Come on, no one can manipulate and
> lie to the public like American companies!
>
>
> --
> --
> Sam Rose
> Social Synergy
> Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
> Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
> skype: samuelrose
> email: samuel.rose at gmail.com
> http://socialsynergyweb.com
> http://socialsynergyweb.org/culturing
> http://flowsbook.panarchy.com/
> http://socialmediaclassroom.com
> http://localfoodsystems.org
> http://notanemployee.net
> http://communitywiki.org
>
> "The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
> ambition." - Carl Sagan
>
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