in germany, people who give the funds don't have to be more like the people who receive the funds. i mean, that would be a really strange thesis. no. what we have to do, and it's true for the european union, we should not aim for an average so that everybody is the same, towards the middle. so perhaps that would please the financial markets, because then we could all have euro bonds and common responsibility, and the countries would be more like each other. but your living standards would be jeopardized because we would no longer be competitive on the world stage. the fact that we have the living standards that we have is because we're very competitive worldwide. so we have to pull the others towards us, and not try to bring ourselves down towards the

average. that's why i talked about best practices, and not about convergence. we have discussed a lot about that. should we be more competitive or should be more like each other. i think we have to look at the best in europe. the average will not be enough to maintain our living standards in the world. if you compare us with the rest of the world. >> translator: second question, from poland, jan jacob. >> translator: i've gathered all the questions. if you have a question in the back over there, you have to really wave your hands, because we don't see you very well.

you can make a little airplane and send to it peele. >> translator: i have the impression that the narrative of the founding fathers after world war ii no longer applies. people don't understand in europe, especially young people in europe and people who are not members of the elite. >> who? >> the people who are not part of the elite, the average citizens. my question is the following. don't you think that we should have a much stronger social dimension in the european union? that is to say we could have european unemployment insurance. that would be a new narrative that would be much more understood by the population of europe. >> well, you know, today and in the future even less, we can no

longer base ourselves only on the roots of europe and mention the foundation, because we are in a totally different situation. that's why today i insisted on the fact that for me, the justification of europe, besides the historical justification, remains true that if we want to maintain our living standards and our way of life, our way of life in europe, we have to be more competitive. and because we are together, we are worth more together than individually. and of course we have to defend our interests. especially freedom. so europe must defend itself and

be itself in the world of 7 billion people, since we're only 500 million. now you're talking to me about the social dimension. in the lisbon treaty, we have signed on the social market forces. everybody has its own interpretation of what that means. but i don't think that the only pillar of europe should be social. i think it can be one of the pillars of europe, but also we need community and research in our development policy. we also must make the same efforts to reduce our national bureaucracies. we have a lot to create. we have to create a european public, a european space. we don't have that today.

during european crisis, for instance, everybody talks about countries. we talk about greece. everybody is talking about greece, pointing their fingers at greece. but when you look at the press in europe, everybody in europe talks about this crisis in a different perspective. and we need a europe with the mobility of workers. it also means that we need transfer possibilities so that everybody can have portable pensions, for instance. if you work in five different countries, you need to be able to take your pension with you. and also we have to harmonize the retirement age. in some countries it's 55. in germany it's 67. we have a lot to do. that is to say the social dimension is one of the aspects. but it's far from being the only one. but what we have to create is of

course as students you are more together than our workers, for instance. but we need more of a european public. we have to know that we all belong to the same area, for instance. >> translator: thank you. now i have a question about the relations between germany and the others. what about the image of germany abroad? from france is going to ask the question. >> translator: no, you can speak without microphone. i can hear you well. you have a good voice. >> translator: many in europe have a very positive image of germany with all the reforms that you have already gone through. germany is admired in many countries, but in many other places people resent germany. what can we do?

you said earlier we have to learn from each other, but germany already did its homework. so don't you think that the rest of europe has to catch up? and that doesn't give you a very good image. >> translator: well, first i've talked about a european public. i have noticed the crisis started that now we tend to talk about them, the germans, the french, the spaniards, the greeks, and so on. well, we have germans who are very active, others that are very lazy. we have germans on the right, germans on the left. we have germans who like to visit museums, like this one, others who don't. it's the same in every country. and the big achievement in europe was that we had stopped saying that. when somebody showed their passport, ah, we knew exactly who he was.

ah, it's a french person. and i'm completely against that. ah, the germans. the germans, they are federal-minded, and the french, ah, the french, everything is in the center, they have centralists. that is exactly what europe should take us away from. we had to overcome all this. and in greece, there are people who did not always agree with the governments. they have suffered under their governments. it was not always wonderful either. and in germany, not everybody is happy either. it is true. we did our homework. but it depends what you're looking at. if you look, for instance, at the budgets, at our capital needs and many other things, our homework is not completely done. and when i look at the family

policy in france, they have had it for 25 years. they are far more advanced than we are. and in germany, we are still discussing how we are going to feed the kids at lunch when we're all at work. i mean, the french have solved that. so we have done a few things, it's true. it was not easy. the germans were not all that pleased with all the changes that we went through. of course we have to change a lot of things because of the reunification of germany. we changed a lot of things in eastern germany, and personally, for me, coming from east germany, i have the experience that change can be good. change can be beautiful. but a lot of people think that when you mean change, it means that their situation is going to worsen. but i can assure you, change can be nice. can be good, can be positive. ask the eastern european countries who joined europe if change is not good.

and we brought them freedom. so we have to avoid to think that one country has already done its homework and the others have to catch up. and if you see in germany how long it takes to build a mile of road or a new train station, you will see that we are still far from our goal. >> translator: back to poland, justina? >> translator: mrs. chancellor,. and fortunately, a lot of young people have lost their trust in the euro. they have lost trust in europe. what kind of vision can you give us? are we going to have a europeanr about in the european commission? is it one vision? is there -- are there many visions?

what can we expect for the future say ten years from now? >> translator: youuil with us to build europe with us. you can always decide what party you're going to vote for. are you going to give your vote to a party that is in favor of the european construction or to another one? i mean, it's up to you. i told you what my vision was, but my vision is not the only one. and we can dream even more. look at, for instance, defense policy. we have a lot more to do. we have some countries in europe that are not nato members, some nato members, this always causes problems. for instance, germany is not an

easy partner either because in germany we have a law in the parliament. and every time you want to send soldiers abroad, you have to pass a new law in the parliament. so we are not easy to deal with. and i don't want for to cre headlines in the press and make people believe that i want to go around the parliament or cancel that law. that's not what i'm saying. but we have a lot personal problems. but we will have more trust among each other when we a one also when we all decide to have more europe. and i'm happy to have europe-friendly british journalists. and i know it does not represent the majority on the british isles. we need great britain in the european union. i'm going to say that.

europe is always a little bit more competitive, thanks to britain. britain is always one of the best in the single market. and of course they are not always very happy when we ask for more sovereignty to be given to europe. but we're going to work on that. we're going to see how we can find a balance so that it's not always the same who are disappointed. and yet to go towards more and more integration. >> translator: we are here in this wonderful building. the architect was an englishman. and it would be very nice if for europe we could also find a few british architects. but at this time, there are not. >> well, let's not be too mean, mr. peele. great britain is a country that is -- that takes the single

market very seriously. and among others for the service directive, you have always in the foreground, it is not britain that slows europe down. so if we want more information, more research, freer trade -- for instance, look at the position of europe at the world trade -- at the wto. britain is always in the right position. so i must say we cannot do without britain. and very often britain is more pro european than a lot of other countries. >> i have a question from greece. zinovia. in the back. >> translator: we are under these greek columns.

i hope it's a symbol of solidity and solidarity. >> translator: i have two short questions. >> no, no, one question. >> translator: okay. let's say less than two. do you believe, really, that if greece applies all the measures imposed by the troika we will solve our problems? i'm not representative of the greek people, but i want to represent my generation in greece. and we really don't know what to do. there are many greek people who want to go back to greece, but they can't. the unemployment is enormous in

greece, especially among young people. it's so bad i've tried to see what jobs i could find in greece so that i could go home. so i checked out the greek employment agency. and you know what? i found jobs for germany and for the rest of the world, but none at all for greece. >> translator: yes, i think that right now greece is in a very difficult, very complicated situation. which is the result of several reasons. one was that the political system in greece. and in the past, whatever government you had, none of your

governments had reached the transparency that was necessary for the rest of the world to see where greece was at. it's a long tradition. perhaps it is difficult for the greeks to be transparent, it's not their tradition. they were not bothered. they didn't wish perhaps to be transparent. and all of the sudden, of course we expect that you show us everything. we want to find out everything, and you don't have the structure for it. number two, second reason, the job market in greece in some places is very narrow. there are many professions that are reserved, that are closed. as a normal citizen, you have no

access to these jobs. they are granted among people who have them already. and what i regret in part is that the people who already have a job do everything to protect it. but we know from experience that only a full opening of the job market will bring more chances. so we have to work with greece so that one of the objectives among everybody is that the greeks themselves open up. because if it is imposed from the outside, the greeks will resent it, of course. and we have not reached that point. we can help, but we will not impose anything.

but i do not believe that things are going well for the greek people. the situation is extremely difficult right now. for them. but in the end, you cannot go without the reforms. you can't avoid them. there is no other way. and i hope that together we'll have a nice future. we do not want particularly to make life more difficult for people. we have no interest in that. we're not interested in making your life hard. but we have to come to a point where with the european help and a few changes, we come to a situation where greek can live on its own. and that greece has a lot more chances than today.

and a and. >> reporter: and if greece decided to step out of the euro, would that be a disaster? >> translator: greece, as far as i know, has not decided to leave the euro. and i don't want greece to leave the euro. therefore the question does not exist. anyway. i can't give you any political answer because it's not in the order of the day, as i said. the euro is not an economic project, it's a political project. i would never do anything to push greece out of the euro. that would have unexpected consequences. >> translator: this whole question of integration of more europe, don't you think there might be a democracy? is it still possible to remain democratic in europe? i have a question here on

credibility of this whole european construction. where does it come from? where do you come from? >> translator: i come from munich. >> translator: i hope head was british. i was expecting a second british question. >> translator: no, it's a basic question. it's fundamental. >> translator: no, go ahead. >> translator: according to you, do you think in europe there is deficit? do you think that we could turn towards less conventional form of democracy? don't you think that the people could be more active, because we don't have the legitimacy, we don't have the political training that makes politics today legitimate?

>> translator: yes. in the lisbon treaty, i think, there is the possibility of sending petitions to europe. you could create a mass movement or give an ideal or gave an idea, and you can give to it the european parliament if you have enough signatures. in my party, in the city we said that perhaps we should have direct election of the commission president so that he would be more identified with the voters. but i think that we have a much simpler task. the european parliament has become extremely powerful. bury the mps in europe do not realize how powerful they are. they don't feel powerful. it's very interesting to watch. the mep in the party in europe

represent totally different positions than the positions they defend in their home parliament. and the american president asked me, he said what happens in the european parliament? because they take decisions that are completely different from the decisions taken by the german parliament or the french parliament. and for instance in germany, we have very tight links between the parliaments of the lender and the federal parliament. they defend the same position. for instance, in my party, all the representatives of my party are against euro bonds, and it's the same in the lender. but it's not the case in the european parliament. that's why there is no identification between the members of parliament, of the european parliament and the voters.

i go to the european council a lot, so i know what is going on in europe. but the parliamentarian in germany, he goes to the bundestag, and then he goes back to his constituency, and he is less aware of the european level. and so i think that we should have much tighter links between the european parliament and the national parliament. we already have meetings of the speakers of the different parliaments. but we should go much deeper. we should go much wider into that. but you will see there are huge differences between parliaments. in germany you have to go through two houses in order to do something like this. in france it goes much faster. you would hit a lot of restrictions. but i think we have to overcome this democratic deficit, as you name it. and it's true maybe ngos could

do something to try to bridge that gap. >> translator: mrs. merkel, thank you very, very much. you have been very generous with your time, especially at a moment where as i know you work 24 hours a day -- n >> no, no, that's not true. >> thank you very much. it was great for all of us. we would have liked to speak for two more hours, but i think everybody is very happy to have heard you. thank you. up next on c-span 3, the senate budget committee looks into the eurozone financial crisis. then tsa administrator john pistole discusses airport security. and then later, the heads of

u.s. steel and the steelworkers union discuss manufacturing and the global economy. friday morning on c-span 3, the turkish foreign minister will be discussing his country's foreign policy and role as a bridge between europe and the middle east. we'll have live coverage from the center for strategic and international studies here on c-span 3 and at c-span.org starting at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. when i first started the book, i also thought this must be an american story. this is about a country that worships the religion of self-reliance and individuality. this is the religion of thoreau, but we're laggards, in fact much more common in european nations, especially in scandinavia. and it's even more common in japan. >> on "after words" in going solo, a look at the growing

trend of american adults choosing to live alone, and what that means for the country, saturday night at 10 eastern. also this weekend on book tv, sunday at 3:00, the second cousin of former secretary of state condoleezza rice, connie rice, on her work to reduce gang violence in l.a., and starting a dialogue between gang leaders and police. and at 8:15, georgetown university's bonnie morris on her one-woman play and book of the same name, "revenge of the women's studies professor," book tv, every weekend on c-span 2. in fewer than 60 days, effective april 1st, 2012, japan will lower its combined corporate rate to 38%. that will leave the united states with the highest corporate tax rate in the entire industrialized world. this dubious distinction will make it that much more challenging to attract businesses to hire and invest here at home where we need jobs. >> someone said the seeing tax law made is like seeing sausage made.

you just don't want to see it. >> it's time for american businesses to put aside our industry's specific wish lists and to work collectively to support a more coherent and equitable tax policy and corporate taxation structure. >> this week, house ways and means took up the future of corporate tax policy for publicly traded companies and how to encourage investment and job growth by lowering tax rates and eliminating special tax breaks. follow the discussion online at the c-span video library, archived and searchable at c-span.org/videolibrary. a recent hearing of the senate budget committee looked into the financial crisis affecting eurozone economies. analysts from the peterson institute for international economics, mit, and the american enterprise institute testified at this two-hour hearing.

>> come to order. >> i want to welcome everyone to the senate budget committee today. today's hear willing focus on the outlook for the your row zone and its potential impact on the u.s. and global economy. we have three really distinguished witnesses with us this morning. i want to thank them each for being here. first, we have dr. simon johnson, sr. fellow at peterson institute and professor of entrepreneurship at the sloan school of management. dr. johnson has testified before this committee on several occasions and we welcome him back this morning. we also have dr. fred bergsten, director for the peterson institute for international economics. i would note that after 13 years of ably leading the peterson institute, he'll be stepping