According to a report from Eurobarometer in 2004, 46% of Americans are tempted to become self-employed, as opposed to 33% of the EU 15 and 32% of the EU 25. Why the big difference? Well, supposedly it has to do with the attitude of different countries/people in those countries towards the possible failure of the business. In my Tourism Politics & Policy class today, we discussed this and the tutor said it is the common perception that Americans feel they can pick themselves up, dust off and move on if they venture into small business ownership and fail, whereas in Europe, it is humiliating to fail and therefore, people may not want to take the risk. I’m not sure I agree with this generalization about Americans, but then again, I don’t know that I have the backgroud knowledge to make a completely informed decision. Any thoughts?
Also, during this discussion, I heard America referred to, once again as on many other occasions since I’ve moved here, as an innovator. All things start in America was a comment made by my GP the other week. I’m surprised by this. I guess it is true that we do initiate a lot of things, but we also are behind in some ways, I think, and we are such a young country in relation to the rest of the world. Can we really have that many fresh ideas? If we do, why do we? It’s an interesting concept to me.
"Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler, belonging no more to one place than the next, moves slowly, over periods of years from one part of the earth to another." -Paul Bowles
1 comment:
I believe that it is BECAUSE you are a young country you have so many fresh ideas or methods of doing business. You are not constrained by centuries of tradition and the like and can simply do what is the best way.
Steve
Commented by steveg on December 7, 2005 at 12:03 pm
Yes, another suggestion was that we are a country founded by innovators, so to speak, who were venturing out based upon risk, and really, when you think about it, the people who have immigrated to the states have continued in this pattern, hoping for something new and better.
Commented by Suzer on December 7, 2005 at 4:37 pm
yeah, i was going to suggest the same thing as steveg. i agree with your suggestion too, suzer. in any case, it’s nice to hear the states being described as doing things that are “innovative” instead of doing things that are “ass-backwards”. LOL!
Commented by boosie on January 4, 2006 at 12:16 am
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