Running Head: CULTURE DIFFERENCE

The Cultural Differences Between the United States and Europe

Aaron Abernathy
University of Kentucky

Abstract
This paper is about the cultural difference of European culture and the United States culture. The
main points that I will be talking about are Government, housing, and sports of the two different

Running Head: CULTURE DIFFERENCE

cultures and will give examples of how they are different. This paper will only cover those three
points but there are many other differences in the United States and European culture, as well as
similarities.
Keywords: Capitalism, Socialism, Culture, Drafts, Promotion and Regulation, Economy,

No matter where you go in the world nothing will be exactly alike. People from different
areas in the world always have different views on how things should be. Culture is defined as, a
way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept,
generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and
imitation from one generation to the next (Culture definition, 1997). When comparing The

Running Head: CULTURE DIFFERENCE

United States and Europe cultures, you can difference everywhere. Three differences I have
found are way the governments are run, housing, and sports of both cultures.
The United States and Europe have different aspects on how their governments should be
ran. Where the United States uses capitalism to control their economy, European countries use
socialism to control theirs.
Capitalism puts most trade and industrial power to private companies instead of the state
(Capitalism, 2015). This makes it a more free market which allows people to become
entrepreneurs and make own business decisions. By creating a capitalist economy most of the
economy is in the people's hands and they decide what will happen to the economy (Capitalism
vs Socialism). By doing this the goal that the government wants to accomplish is that the people
will strive and want to make a bigger impact on the economy and doing so will keep the
economy increasing at a steady rate (Capitalism vs Socialism).
Socialism puts all trade and industrial power into the hands of the government
(Socialism, 2015). Once the government has control over majority they divide up work between
the nations people and in doing so they believe that wealth will be distributed throughout the
people. Not only is the wealth disrupted through the working people, but also if people lose their
jobs then the unemployed people receive generous unemployment benefits (Capitalism vs
Socialism). Also with generous unemployment benefits, people receive universal health care and
subsidized child care (Reich, 2014). Subsidized child care is when families receive financial aid
from the government to help take care of the cost of child care (Child Care Subsidies for Federal
Employees, 2015).
When compared with each other, European socialism is doing better than the United
States' capitalism. As of now an average European mans wage is now higher than the average

Running Head: CULTURE DIFFERENCE

American mans wage and their disposable income is also higher than ours even after taxes have
been taken out (Reich, 2014). Like I said before in my previous paragraph, European countries
give their people generous unemployment benefits as well as child care services. Unemployed
Americans on the other hand do not receive as much unemployment benefits if compared to
Europeans and if any child care services. Americans also work more than European workers.
We're working an average of 4.6 percent more hours more than the typical Canadian
worker, 21 percent more than the typical French worker, and a whopping 28 percent more
than your typical German worker, according to data compiled by New York Times
columnist Nicholas Kristof. (Robert Reich)
With shorter hours Americans would receive more pay, but in actuality Europeans still receive
more pay than Americans. To add to shorter hours, higher pay, Europeans also receive more paid
vacation, sick leave pay, and paid parental leave with three weeks being the norm for all (Reich,
2014).
Both aspects of how the United States and Europe run government reflects their culture in
them. Capitalism reflects the American way of if you want you have to go get it which is so
strong in our culture and socialism reflects the aspect of european people working together for the
greater good.
When you take a look at our housing structure you can tell that there plenty of differences
in them. European culture has taken a different turn.
If you were to take a look at a standard european home, you would see many differences.
A majority of European have similar style to each other. European houses have usually no
driveways. People in Europe generally rely on street parking as ways to park their cars. Many
homes are attached to each other and are generally two stories tall with small square foot of 9501000ft (Jones, 2015). Majority of the European houses are building with bricks on the outside
with bayed windows and shutters. Reasons behind why people build houses like this is because of

Running Head: CULTURE DIFFERENCE

geography. European countries do not have enough space as we do (Jones, 2015). So theyve
adapted their living styles to make up for the cramped spaces which means more compacted
housing. This adds to the cultural belief of helping one another for the greater good because
everyone lives so close together that if something happens it can affect the whole community so
they must work together.
Housing in the United States is different from housing in Europe. Houses in the United
States tend to go on the ranch style single story housing (Jones, 2015). House in the United States
also tend to have garages attached to them so can park cars. Houses will mostly always be
detached from any other homes with large windows and glass doors to let in natural light.
Because of such large spacing in the United States, housing is not as compact has European
housing is (Jones, 2015). You may find that in cities they are similar, but the ideal home from an
American is a detached suburban home.
Everyone around the world enjoys watching sports in their past time no matter where you
are from. Where you are from however, does reflect on what sports are more popular than the
other. You can see this in what sports americans favor more than what Europeans do.
In the United States we take sports very seriously like everyone else in the World. The
United States, however, is different when it comes to what sports it puts at the top. In America
puts american football and baseball towards the top of the totem poll unlike Europe (Paglia,
2013). In Europe, football (or better known as soccer to the United States) is at the the top of the
sporting list with tennis as well (Paglia, 2013). Both countries have different ideas on what sports
are interesting to them, they do share some sports that they think are fun. Both basketball and golf
are universally popular in European and American culture.

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As the United States and European cultures have different and similar sports they find
interesting, both cultures also run their own professional sports teams differently as well. In
european sports they use a promotion and regulation system in their leagues (Ziemba, 2015). In
this system they will take the bottom teams (usually bottom three) and move the down a tier to the
second division. This also goes for the second divisions (Ziemba, 2015). Their top teams then take
the spot of the teams that were kicked out and let the try to succeed in the higher division. This
happens every year in the sports leagues.
In the United States they have no promotion and regulation system. Instead the United
States they have a draft system. In the draft system teams select from a pool of eligible players
and are given rights to sign the payer and no other team does (Clancy, 2015). These group of
players usually come from colleges, high schools, or junior teams that have trained them and
made them ready for the professional league. One of the ways the draft is done is reverse record
style meaning that once the last team has picked their selection, they get first pick in the second
round and whoever had gotten first pick in the first round will get last pick in the second round
(Clancy, 2015). This then continues throughout all rounds with first becoming last and last
becoming first. First pick in the drafts are done off how well a team did in the previous season. If
a team had the worst record in the previous season then they will receive first pick in the
upcoming draft. Same goes for if you had the best record in the league (Champions, 2015), you
would have the last pick in the upcoming draft (Clancy, 2015). There are other styles that are done
in American professional sports other than reverse record such as lottery style.
Both ways are different but they want the same outcome and that is to keep the league
fresh and gives team's chances to improve their standings. Where Europeans do it through
changing who plays in the league, Americans give the worse teams better selections of quality

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players coming into the league.Both ways dont say that the new teams or the adding of better
players will change the standings but at leasts gives them a chance.
Though the United States was created by european countries, we can find many
differences in the twos cultures. We do share some things in common but the differences out
number them. Government, housing, and sports are just three of many differences both cultures
have when compared to each other. Because of this difference however, it makes us different from
one another which is a good thing.

Work Consulted
Capitalism. (2015). In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 6, 2015, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/capitalism
Capitalism vs Socialism. (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2015, from
http://www.diffen.com/difference/Capitalism_vs_Socialism
Child Care Subsidies for Federal Employees. (2015, July 28). Retrieved October 6, 2015,
from http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/164623
Clancy, S. (2013, April 25). Your guide to the 2013 NFL Draft. Retrieved October 6,
2015, from http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/american-football/22277376
Culture definition. (1997). Retrieved October 6, 2015, from
https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html

Running Head: CULTURE DIFFERENCE

Jones, R. (2015, March 14). Homes in Europe, Homes in America: The Future of
Housing? Retrieved October 6, 2015, from http://www.builddirect.com/blog/homes-ineurope-homes-in-america-the-future-of-housing/

Paglia, C. (2013, July 23). Cultural Differences: USA vs. Europe. Retrieved October 6,
2015, from http://www.quickenloans.com/blog/cultural-differences-usa-europe
Reich, R. (2014, May 21). The Practical Choice: Not American Capitalism or 'Welfare
State Socialism' but an Economy That's Working for a Few or Many. Retrieved October
6, 2015, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/american-capitalism-europeansocialism_b_5364299.html
Socialism. (2015). In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 6, 2015, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/socialism
Ziemba, J. (2015, January 19). European Football vs. American Sports: Some Interesting
Differences. Retrieved October 6, 2015, from
https://sites.duke.edu/wcwp/2015/01/19/european-football-vs-american-sports-someinteresting-observations/