BOOK REVIEW: 'Were You Born on the Wrong Continent?'
Chicago Labor Lawyer Tells Us What Germany Can Teach Us About Working, Managing Debt, Enjoying Time Off
Reviewed By David M. Kinchen
As a one-time Chicago resident (1961-1963) and lifelong fan of the city where both of my parents were born, I can imagine sitting down with Chicago labor lawyer and author -- and Irish storyteller Thomas Geoghegan -- in a cozy pub with a pint or two or three of Harp Lager or Guinness Stout and listen to him chronicle his adventures in a country where only 8 percent of the workers belong to a labor union -- the U.S.
My past union memberships -- for those who question my credentials to discuss unions -- include the Retail Clerks International Association (when I was in high school, working at a Kroger supermarket in my hometown of Rochelle, IL); United Steelworkers of America and the American Newspaper Guild at my first newspaper job in Indiana. I've also been a business/labor editor on a daily newspaper.
In his latest book, "Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? How the European Model Can Help You Get a Life" (The New Press, 336 pages, $25.95) Geoghegan asks his readers if they really believe the propaganda that the U.S. is the greatest place to live on earth, balancing job security, health care, life expectancy and time off for good behavior to have some fun.
His conclusion, based on five trips where he tries to understand so-called European socialism firsthand, is that we're not the best place for middle-class people. First he tries France (which has become a rhetorical stand-in for the continent as a whole in many Americans' minds), but he eventually ventures into Germany to see what some call the "boring" Europe. He says the French model is flawed because workers don't have the advantages of Germans, with a say in the company's future, and are constantly striking. Germans, with their powerful unions, rarely go on strikes because they have a real voice in their employment.
In Germany, Geoghegan finds the true "other"—an economic model with more bottom-up worker control than that of any other country in the world — and argues that, while we have to take Germany’s problems seriously, we also have to look seriously at how much it has achieved. Social democracy may let us live nicer lives; it also may be the only way to be globally competitive. His anecdotal book helps us understand why the European model, contrary to popular neoliberal wisdom, may thrive well into the twenty-first century without compromising its citizens' ease of living — and be the best example for the United States to follow.
OK, some facts about Germany, the largest economy by far in the European Union and the fourth largest in the world, measured by gross domestic product per person (GDP), with a thriving export-oriented manufacturing sector -- like the kind we used to have when we manufactured goods that were desired around the world.
Germany, with 83 million people and few natural resources, is the world's second largest exporter, with $1.170 trillion exported in 2009. You know who is the largest exporter and it ain't us. Hint: It begins with C and ends in A. and has more than 1.3 billion residents. Germany's service sector contributes about 70 percent of the total GDP of Germany, with industry another 29.1 percent and agriculture less than 1 percent. Most of the country's exports are in engineering, automobiles, machinery, metals and chemicals. Germany is the world's leading producer of wind turbines and solar power technology.
Geoghegan tells us that the average number of paid vacation days in the U.S. is 13, compared with Germany’s 35. New mothers in the U.S. get three months of unpaid job-protected leave and only if they work for a company of 50 or more employees, while Germany mandates four months’ paid leave and will pay parents 67% of their salary to stay home for up to 14 months to care for a newborn. U.S. life expectancy is 50th in the world, compared to Germany’s 32nd.
Most people know that our Social Security Act of 1935 is modeled on the German pension system instituted in the 19th Century. Or they should know that! Geoghegan tells us in his book something that I didn't know: The present-day system of worker involvement with their employers was put in place by American New Dealers and British Labour Party socialists after the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. They wanted to prevent a repeat of the close collaboration of the country's manufacturers with the Nazi regime and figured that with workers on the board of directors, this wouldn't happen.
There's a sign visible on the Amtrak route to New York, just past Philadelphia, that reads (or it did on my last Amtrak trip to NYC): "Trenton Makes, The World Takes." Trenton, NJ doesn't make much of anything today. In 1924, the sign had been on the Delaware River bridge for more than a decade and the city of Trenton -- along with adjacent parts of surrounding communities in Mercer County -- was the center of the smallest of eight heavily industrialized counties in New Jersey. The other industrialized counties were Bergen, Camden, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Passaic, and Union. Anecdotal evidence suggests that nearly one out of every two jobs in Mercer County was related to manufacturing. Today, after eight decades of significant structural change, this number is closer to one out of every 25 jobs.
So, as a lawyer might ask, cui bono? (for whose benefit?). Short answer: the middle class. Using Germany as a model, Geoghegan argues that the middle class reaps the benefits of Germany's free education -- including at the university level; free child care, free nursing home care and generous unemployment benefits. Of course, the Germans pay more in taxes than we do, but they get more from their tax euro in return, Geoghegan argues. Of course, we provide security for the Germans and their armed forces don't go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
About the author: Thomas Geoghegan received national attention when he ran -- and lost -- as a progressive Democratic candidate for Rahm Emanuel's congressional seat in 2009. He was defeated in the primary election by Mike Quigley in March 2009 (Quigley won the general election in April 2009). Born in Cincinnati, OH in 1949, Geoghegan (pronounced to rhyme with "Reagan") is a practicing attorney and the author of several books, including "Which Side Are You On?" and "In America's Court."
Publisher's website: www.thenewpress.com.