Lessons from Austria

            Travel abroad can be a great educational experience, especially when it opens our eyes to other cultures. On a recent trip that included a few days in Austria, I came away with some lasting impressions.

            I was struck by the apparent affluence of the population, no doubt fueled by an unemployment rate of 4.5%. Everybody who wants to work has a job. Austria has done some good things for its economy, like joining the European Union, which gave it free access to European markets, and privatizing industry, which has made the country more competitive.

            Austria's affluence shows. Vienna, the capital and largest city, is booming. Since 1990, when I last visited it, the city has added a ring of modern industrial complexes. But it is still the center of the city that reflects its vitality. Tourism represents 10% of Austria's economy, and Vienna has a major share of it, because it has so much to offer its visitors. Hotels, restaurants, hundreds of cafes offering a unique variety of coffees and pastries, museums, concert halls, parks, palaces, churches, and architectural wonders, all contribute to the city's appeal.

            Little things, too. Like a clean, modern subway system with electronic boards that show arrival times and intervals. Like clean streets that are closed to vehicular traffic after 10:30 in the morning. Like public toilets that are clean and free of loiterers (because you must pay a small fee to use them). Like bicycle lanes for a slim and trim population that frowns on indolence. I did see a few tattoos and some nose studs, but no sagging pants or knee-length T-shirts. I heard church bells and strains of Mozart and Strauss, but not a single vibrating boom box.

            Still, there are some disturbing signs: an aging population with a negative growth rate largely supplemented by Muslim immigration; labor unions that are dedicated to perpetuating unproductive work rules; a government addicted to socialist welfare policies; and an increasingly secular population that has seen a drop in churchgoers from 90% to under 40% in fifty years. I have to wonder if these are the seeds of self-destruction.

            On Austria's superb no-speed-limit highways, you can see one brand new car after another whizzing by at speeds up to and over 100 miles per hour. I wonder if this is not the perfect metaphor for a country enjoying the best of everything while waiting for a fatal crash to happen.

            We could learn something from that.