You're right, Andy, Americans don't really care what Europeans think of America. If we did, we'd move to Europe.
"Slightly higher taxes" are a euphemism for $8/gallon gas, which is a HUGE HIDDEN TAX ON ALL THINGS DELIVERED BY TRUCK, most especially FOOD, but impacting EVERYTHING ELSE.
A perfect example is that I took my ex-wife to a decent-looking Chinese restaurant in London back in 2001. It was in Marylebone, on a major street - I don't remember the name. We're not talking anything fancy, mind you. Frankly kind of crappy and tacky by NYC standards.
When we got the bill, for two people to eat lousy Chinese food, it was $100 POUNDS. AT the time, that was $160 US!!! Totally friggin outrageous! In London, home of the blandest, most boring food in the world, even Indian food is super-expensive, more than double the same cost in New York City.
Flats in London (apartments in American English) are tiny little #$%*-holes that cost nearly triple per square foot what apartments in Manhattan cost.
A hotel room in London cost me $450 US per night, and we were expected to SHARE A BATHROOM WITH THE ADJACENT ROOM!!! Sorry, that's not charming. That's just tacky.
Everything is more expensive, and there is only one reason for it: TAXES. TAXES AT EVERY STEP OF THE JOURNEY FROM PRODUCER TO CONSUMER. They tax the gas the trucks use to deliver the fuel, they tax the income of the producers, they tax the income of the store owner who sells it to you, they tax the income of the delivery man, they tax the income of the landlord, they tax EVERYTHING EXCESSIVELY.
In return for all that excessive taxation, they get marginal health care. Fmr. President Bill Clinton (Oxford educated) sure didn't fly to London when he needed his heart taken care of. He flew to Manhattan.
Not that you really care but...a European perspective on the Health care bill...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100324/wl_time/08599197442400
Some comments lifted from it..
"On Sunday evening the richest, most powerful country in the world, the USA, finally entered the 20th century. Yes, not the 21st century, but the 20th"
and
"One of the most important differences between America and other industrialized countries has finally been lifted"
and the power of the European voter...
"In Europe, voters demand that their governments offer good public services - including decent education and medical care - and regularly vote them out of office when they fail to deliver. Taxes may be slightly higher in Europe, but medical fees are heavily subsidized by governments and are drastically cheaper than they are in the U.S."
and finally....
"The fundamental difference between Europe and the U.S., Europeans believe, is that Americans regard public services as a bonus rather than a basic right. For some, this is evidence that the American system is deeply flawed. "It was a scandal that the world's richest country for so long offered its citizens such pitiful protection against illness or injury," wrote Gregor Peter Schmitz, Washington correspondent for Der Spiegel on its website Monday. "It seems entirely possible that, in 10 years time, Americans will find it hard to believe that they didn't always have the right to health insurance." "
