its probably an artifact of "old wealth" and their economic system.
Seriously? Ireland and "old wealth?" Do you know the history of Ireland? For centuries the Irish were controlled by the British. The only rich families allowed were protestant (who either moved to Britain or Northern Ireland after Irish independence) or British. Ireland is not a nation of extensive "old money."
Secondly, if its their economic system, then isn't that the point. If their economic system is producing better per captia GDPs then the US one then shouldn't the US shut up about our system being the "best."
Don't get me wrong, I think a lot of things are right about the US. Checks and balances in government are much more extensive in the US than many European countries for one thing. But Americans in general need to get off their high horse that we're the best at everything. I would vastly prefer basically all Western European economic and political systems to the Soviet Union, but in its heyday the Soviet Union was still a super-power while no Western European country could match it. I'll grant you that the Soviet Union did fall...but there is no assurance that the US won't fall one day or will maintain sole super-power status for to many more years.
The main problem with thinking we're the best at everything is that we ignore good ideas from other countries. The US has a lot to learn from other nations just as much as they have to learn from us. No nation will get everything right and acting like your nation has will only lead to its eventual collapse. As a US citizen I'd rather the US not collapse and thus I try to keep an open mind.
Does this mean to adopt something soley because its new or foreign? Of course not! That's as ridiculous as refusing to adopt something for those reasons. But in several arenas Europe does better than the US.
European public education seems to be better at educating European children so perhaps there are ideas from their system worth adopting.
Many European nations scored higher than the US in a happiness survey, so further research ought to be done as to why that is.
Europeans have multi-party systems which force a decrease in partisanship and give the citizens of those countries more choices. We'd obviously have to implement the system better than Italy for instance, but Germany and the UK both have robust, working multi-party systems.
I didn't cover what I think Europe can learn from the US because my point was that the US doesn't have everything perfect. If you REALLY demand it I'll cover the other side of the coin but right now its too late and I'm too tired.
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