From The
Economist via Edge of England's Sword:
...But if you look at Europe as a whole, the small movement back towards old-fashioned virtues in big
Catholic countries is far outweighed by the stride the other way in post-Protestant countries such
as Germany and Sweden. On average, then, the values gap between America and European countries
seems to be widening.
"small movement back towards old-fashioned virtues in big Catholic countries is far outweighed..."
Including Italy, with its negative birthrate? Isn't this a case of looking at what people do rather than
listening to what they say?
As a person who studies genealogy, I have developed this intuitive theory that the US ranks as it does
because of selection bias. Briefly, the people who emigrated to the US were the ones who more self-reliant
and self-motivated. They were risk takers for sure. They relied on "tradition" to carry themselves through
difficult times, but they were innovative enough to recognize that going with what worked was preferable
to sticking with tradition.