Many Americans don't buy the crap that some of my fellow American posters are writing here. I find their provincialism embarrassing. Their definition of freedom is basically the freedom of the rich and the lucky and the powerful to run roughshod over everyone and everything that gets in their way. I lived in Germany for two years and saw for myself what admirable societies have been built in Europe. People there are much freer from the economic traps and nightmares that plague Americans who run into bad luck--like getting sick, for example. We need to be more like Europe in a number of ways, including their ethic of social responsibility, rather than narrow self-interest (which conservatives refer to as "freedom.")