My View on Europe; Notes from my Recent Trip to Europe

Right, I am back from Europe recently. I have been to a few cities, a few countries.

All in all, reliance on government is what characterizes Europeans today. This is in a sharp contrast to Chinese who are always, by definition, suspicious of what "the government" does. The Chinese want to show the government wrong, they want to show their worth. The European are powerless, impotent, begging the government to shelter them, feed them. Oh, dear.

(1) European economies are probably much worse than we think they are. There is no optimism, no willingness of civilians to do better, to make themselves better. They all seem to live for the weekend.

(2) European consumers? Are you joking!? Europeans are poor and rely on the state handout for housing, medical bills, etc. In fact, women in Europe are on contraceptive pills as they do, but they can't themselves afford them. Government has to do everything for them and a popular rhetoric of blaming the immigrants. Now targets seem to be Muslims.

(3) Housing. Again everyone relies on the government to own a house. European governments have been telling their citizens that the government helps citizens for whatever they need. I felt like I was in a communist state. This housing point is really important. Communists state and biggest equity investment for most citizens.

(4) Small town mentality prevails wherever you go. Only a small percentage of the population have been exposed to international cultures. I was stunned when a fellow passenger on a train describing poor immigrants as "taking our jobs", rich immigrants as "invading our country." There is anti-intellectualism in Europe. Being smart is bad in Europe. Everyone becoming stupid as a bag of rocks is what they want.

(5) Anti-business. This is "anti-business" period. The business can't get good employees with great blue-color ethics, executives too busy managing bureaucracies in the work place. They spend more time managing office cultures than getting the actual work done. I thought the Japanese were bad at managing company culture, but Europeans are probably worse. Its not your abilities that get you promoted, its the way you manage relations at work place.

(6) Infrastructure. It's poor. It's really poor.

(7) False sense of equality. Europeans love to think that they live in utopian society. The poor and rich live together in a same corner of a town. Right, the poor on the government handout living in a million dollar house, the rich living in a similar house with the money they have earned.

All in all, reliance on government is what characterizes Europeans today. This is in a sharp contrast to Chinese who are always, by definition, suspicious of what "the government" does. The Chinese want to show the government wrong, they want to show their worth. The European are powerless, impotent, begging the government to shelter them, feed them. Oh, dear...