The European dream
Subtitle: how Europe's vision of the future is quietly eclipsing the American dream
By: Jeremy Rifkin
Publisher: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 434
ISBN-13: 9781585423453; 9781585424351
Subjects: Zukunft; Economische ontwikkeling; Economische politiek; Quality of life; Social policy; Economic development; Kwaliteit van het bestaan; Aspect social; Politique sociale; Développement économique; Economic policy; Politique économique; Sociale ontwikkeling; Qualité de la vie; Sociale politiek
Description: "The American Dream is in decline. Americans are increasingly overworked, underpaid, and squeezed for time. But there is an alternative: the European Dream-a more leisurely, healthy, prosperous, and sustainable way of life. Europe's lifestyle is not only desirable, argues Jeremy Rifkin, but may be crucial to sustaining prosperity in the new era. With the dawn of the European Union, Europe has become an economic superpower in its own right-its GDP now surpasses that of the United States. Europe has achieved newfound dominance not by single-mindedly driving up stock prices, expanding working hours, and pressing every household into a double- wage-earner conundrum. Instead, the New Europe relies on market networks that place cooperation above competition; promotes a new sense of citizenship that extols the well-being of the whole person and the community rather than the dominant individual; and recognizes the necessity of deep play and leisure to create a better, more productive, and healthier workforce. From the medieval era to modernity, Rifkin delves deeply into the history of Europe, and eventually America, to show how the continent has succeeded in slowly and steadily developing a more adaptive, sensible way of working and living. In The European Dream, Rifkin posits a dawning truth that only the most jingoistic can ignore: Europe's flexible, communitarian model of society, business, and citizenship is better suited to the challenges of the twenty-first century. Indeed, the European Dream may come to define the new century as the American Dream defined the century now past." http://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0720/2004047935-d.html.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: New lessons from the Old World: The slow death of the American dream ; The new land of opportunity ; The quiet economic miracle; title: The making of the modern age: Space, time, and modernity ; Creating the individual ; Inventing the ideology of property ; Forging capitalist markets and nation-states; title: The coming global era: Network commerce in a globalized economy ; The "United States" of Europe ; Government without a center ; Romancing the civil society ; The immigrant dilemma ; Unity in diversity ; Waging peace ; A second enlightenment ; Universalizing the European Union.