Stone soup, Overgaard. Specialization happens without interference wherever interference can be escaped. In this country, telephone operators are ugly, especially the midnight people. Used to be true of radio personalities too, but what with the boom in low budget cable programing and Howard Stern being the goof-ball that he is, well they have to at least look interesting anymore.
I could give many, many examples.
The difference between a Socialist model and a free market model is who makes the decisions. In theory, back when America was a free country, it was left up to the employer and the employee with no middle man. Now we have all manner of intervention and publicly funded retraining. It doesn't work very well for one real simple reason. Employers don't have time to triffle with all the bureaucratic silliness and reasonably sensible employees 1) don't either and 2) understand that the best employers aren't scalping the welfare lines, they're looking elsewhere for help.
I think our way works best on that count. Without going into great detail about all of my faults and shortcomings or those of many of my friends, suffice it to say that it's more dignified to find one's own way than to be defined by your malladies and dependent on some omnipotent faceless benefactor to dole out the goodies based on whatever formula the bureacrats are most impressed with this political season.
But different strokes. There's also the differenc among the two cultures which I think was best stated by a Dane interviewing for our news magazine tv show, 60 Minutes. He said that America is an idea. You can join an idea and become an American. Denmark is a country. You can't become Danish. He was talking about the nation's strategy and objectives for assimilating immigrants and noted that your objectives are quite different from ours. You want people to live there peacefully and productively, but not to become Danish while America is defined by our assimilated cultures; and ever changing as a result.
I see the point and respect your right to do as you will so long as you don't try to coerce others. Aside from the insidious spred of Danish pastry dependency, I haven't seen much sign of creeping Danish hegenomy lately. Oh sure, there was the small matter of the Viking raids. But really, how long can one country hold a grudge against a beloved other?
Seriously, guys, let's be civil and learn something.