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As recently as last week, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to visit Europe. It has been four years since I was last there and a lot has changed. One of the greatest surprises was being welcomed as an American. On my previous visit, my family and I were spit at in Italy. Now they yell, “We Love Obama.”

Now that I am a little older, I became aware of something that was hardly on my radar during my earlier trip but was very evident this time around. In Europe the culture is all about living within your means. Americans, in particular, pride themselves on over indulgence. We even praise the Paris Hilton  types who are able to achieve the American dream without having to ever lift a finger. The political talk these days is all about the rethinking the American dream. I don’t see this ever happening. Will we give up our SUV’s? Many Europeans don’t have cars let alone ones that hold more than two people comfortably. How about shifting focus from celebrity to community? Nice concept if you can get it, but let me pose this question to you. Are you an only child? Most likely not. But in Europe, nine out of ten families only have one child. Shocked? Am I saying anything new? Probably not but, this is a story worth telling.

While in Italy I visited a local tavern (are you aware that they serve Duff Beer in Italy?) and ordered a couple of drinks for my friends. In my Manhattan lifestyle, this is expected, for if you can afford to live here than surely you can afford to buy your friends drinks. This is apparently not the case in Europe. As I ordered my drinks, the bartender whispered, “That is going to be expensive. Can I suggest something else?” Huh? What? Seriously? Turns out that was only my first mistake. After the bartender served our drinks, I left her a generous tip for trying to offer me advice. Guess what? It is rude to tip. That’s right. She turned down my money. Can you imagine this in America? Everyone expects to be tipped- waiters, doormen, delivery guys, it is never ending.

My learning didn’t stop there. Through this economic downturn, we have heard nothing but reports of layoffs for hundreds of thousands workers who every month are losing their jobs and about all the difficulties they encounter paying their bills and trying to find work. While we may think it is bad here, you should have seen Belgium.

Brussels, Belgium is a particularly interesting town filled with American companies due to the location of NATO Headquarters in town. Driving through, I saw Cisco, IBM, Deloitte and many others. Due to the proximity of my hotel in between all these enormous office buildings, one would think that the city was bursting with business activity. This is when I realized how much the global economy is tied directly into the U.S. economy. In my 125-room hotel, there was only a 25% occupancy rate. You read that right. I was one of four people staying in this beautiful hotel located in the middle of this American oasis overseas. What was worse was that it affected my attempt to eat. They had shut down the hotel restaurant a month earlier due to budget cuts.

We truly are connected in a way that most people can never imagine, but the lessons are universal. A) ripple effect can be global, B) if you are to compete with you neighbor let it be for happiness not flash, and C) travel. How else do you get a new perspective on life?

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Tags: european values, financial responsibility, live within your means, moderation, travel belgium, travel italy, zack rosenberg

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This entry was posted on Monday, August 17th, 2009 at 9:55 am and is filed under Personal Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.