Are you suggesting that the recession in the Eurozone was caused by socialised medical protection?

That is not clear to me - but it is clear that restrictive labor laws are playing a major role.

Gimme a break, man. Look at the Large Hadron Collider -- that could have been us, but we slashed the funding. A Nobel Prize?

Well David Jeffrey Wineland (USA, NIST) won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 for laser cooling and manipulation of quantum states.

Brian Kobilka (USA, Stanford) and Robert Lefkowitz (USA, Duke) won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2012 for work on G protein-coupled receptors.

Some other recent USA winners of scientific Nobel prizes:

Saul Perlmutter, Physics, 2011
Brian P. Schmidt, Physics, 2011
Adam G. Riess, Physics, 2011
Ralph M. Steinman, Physiology or Medicine, 2011
Bruce Beutler, Physiology or Medicine, 2011
Richard F. Heck, Chemistry, 2010
Ei-ichi Negishi, Chemistry, 2010
Thomas A. Steitz, Chemistry, 2009

I think a lot of the better educated in the US are starting to look with interest at Europe's social protections.

Eurozone suffers its longest downturn ever as France sinks back into recession...The eurozone is in its longest recession since it was created, after GDP fell by 0.2% in the first three months of 2012...

If Walmart took its entire $22 billion of annual pre-tax income... ...then it wouldn't be able to pay its taxes!

Walmart paid $6 billion in US taxes last year. How much did you pay?

Another person spouting nonsense about "free trade". It's not by definition, but according to simplistic theory. Furthermore, even that theory requires conditions that often aren't met (e.g. balanced trade). "Mutual benefit" means it benefits both countries in terms of their aggregate statistics

Free trade means two people decide to engage in a mutually beneficial economic transaction, so it benefits both parties. That's a fact.

Trade statistics don't matter. The US could run a trade deficit forever and become more wealthy because those trades ARE making the people in the country more wealthy, or else they would not be engaging in the trades.

There is no new tech now in this country.

Instagram? GoPro? iPhone? iPad? Square? Google self-driving cars? Tesla? SpaceX? Drones from General Atomics Aeronautical Systems & Northrop Grumman?

UMUC BS CS. UMUC is the online/extension arm of the University of Maryland.

BTW, National Geographic Channel is a joint venture of National Geographic Television & Film and Fox Cable Networks.

The news is that FOX announced this will actually air in the 2013-2014 season at their upfronts on Monday. Before that, it was unclear as to when it would air.

I don't think the Founders foresaw this type or level of corruption. They instituted a system of checks and balances

For instance, the Constitution does not allow Congress to regulate trade that is not inter-state, but we ignore that now.

Unlike pretty much any other industry, US liquid natural gas exporters have to get explicit permission from the US Department of Energy to export LNG.

Recently it was reported that the DOE will likely only approve would likely approve only three out of the 20 applications under review for exporting natural gas.

The price of natural gas in the US is way, way below the price of natural gas in Europe or Japan, and there is a huge amount of money to be made in exporting US LNG. Europe is currently held politically hostage by Russian natural gas supplies and prices.

However given the length of the DOE process and the time to build LNG terminals, it is unlikely the US will become a major player in the international natural gas market until 2020 at the earliest.

There is no way a bike could carry one week worth of groceries for a family

The Dutch have cargo bikes called bakfiets.

the reason many of the young are unemployed in Greece is the same reason the young are unemployed in the US

Greek youth unemployment is 58%, so while we may have a problem with American youth unemployment, it is nowhere as bad as Greece.

The problem is Greece is over-regulation of both industry and labor, as well as a tax regime that encourages a black market.

For example, regarding labor law...

In Greece in case of mass redundancies (i.e. redundancies which exceed 4 employees per month for companies with 20-200 employees or 2-3% of total personnel for companies with over 200 employees) the employer must enter into consultations with the representatives of the employees. If no agreement is reached with the employees during the consultations, the employer must obtain the approval of the authorities before effecting any redundancies. Law 1387/1983 also applies to close-downs of businesses. For example if your start-up goes south.

The General National Collective Labour Agreement (GNCLA) sets minimum wages for all employees in Greece. Furthermore, minimum wages - which must in any case be more favourable than those set by the GNCLA - are determined through nation-wide or local sectoral collective labour agreements.

The provision of work in excess of 40 hours per week and up to 45 hours ("overwork") is compensated with an amount equal to the employee's hourly wage increased by 25%. Any work above the 45-hour limit ("overtime") requires the prior approval of the authorities which is granted only in special circumstances e.g. unexpected workload, temporary needs etc. The compensation for overtime work is equal to the employee's hourly wage increased by 50%.

The law does not require the existence of a "serious cause" for the termination of indefinite- term contracts. However, the employee may challenge the validity of the termination in case of an abuse of the employer's rights. Early termination of fixed-term employment contracts, on the other hand, requires the existence of a "serious cause".

The formal requirements for the termination of an indefinite-term employment contract are the following: (a) written notification of the employee, (b) payment of severance compensation, and (c) registration of the employee with the competent social security fund. The minimum amount of severance compensation is set by law based on the employee's regular emoluments and length of service. No prior notice of termination is required by law. If, however, the employer gives the notice provided by law the employee is entitled to 1/2 of the lawful severance indemnity.

Employees with children are entitled to non-paid family leave equal to 3 1/2 months in total. Said leave can be taken during the period from the end of the maternity leave until the child reaches the age of 3 1/2. Mothers insured with the Social Security Fund (IKA-ETAM) are entitled to an additional 6 months of leave, during which they get paid by the Unemployment Office (OAED). Finally, working mothers are entitled to reduce their working hours by one hour per day for a period of 30 months after the child's birth.

The maximum duration of "short-term" leave due to sickness is determined by law based on the employee's length of service (e.g. 1 month for employees with up to 4 years of service, 3 months for employees with 4-10 years of service etc.).

Under Greek law, employees are entitled to receive one month's salary as Christmas allowance, half month's salary as Easter allowance and half month's salary as holiday bonus (i.e. total of 14 salaries per year).

Any detrimental change to the employee's terms of employment (e.g. decrease of salary, transfer to a lower position etc.) requires the consent of the employee (tacit or written).

Employees are entitled to a minimum paid leave per annum which varies between 20 and
26 days, based on their length of service.