Try to imagine your life in a full-blown European social democracy, especially the German version. Free public goods, a bit of worker control, and whopping trade surpluses? Social democracy doesn’t sound too bad.
Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? reveals where you might have been happier—or at least had time off to be unhappy properly. It explains why Americans should pay attention to Germany, where ordinary people can work three hundred to four hundred hours a year less than we do and still have one of the most competitive economies in the world.
Tentang Penulis
Thomas Geoghegan is a practicing attorney and the author of several books, including
See You in Court,
In America’s Court, and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist
Which Side Are You On? (all available from The New Press). He has written for
The Nation, the
New York Times, and
Harper’s. He lives in Chicago.