Anyone who still doubts that Donald Trump has a wicked sense of humour need only consider his chosen ambassador to the EU, Andrew Puzder, recent CEO of the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr hamburger restaurants. The president’s fondness for fast food extends to a man who made a small fortune rescuing a chain with almost 3,000 locations from bankruptcy. What better way to cock a snook at an EU already grappling with the prospect of new tariffs than to compel its officials to make nice with a purveyor of food the average European diplomat wouldn’t eat at the point of a gun?
But the Puzder appointment is not just an attempt to tweak Brussels, it is an object lesson on how a country can promote individual opportunity to generate national wealth. Consider the man’s CV: after working as a construction labourer and house painter, Puzder graduated from the distinctly lower-tier Cleveland State University. In Germany, Puzder would have been tracked as a teenager into a vocational apprenticeship and would likely now be employed on an assembly line. Instead this working class kid scratched his way through law school and then came to the attention of Carl Karcher, the entrepreneur behind the Carl’s Jr. chain. Brought in to save Karcher’s company from financial ruin in 2000, Puzder revived the firm with marketing focused on “hungry young men” featuring “hot chicks eating burgers.” A crude but lucrative strategy that revived the company and its hundreds of franchisees.
Such a strategy is not likely to be emulated by elite graduates of INSEAD or members of the Davos set. Like much of European society, European business remains captive to a strict social hierarchy. Aerospace, banking and car companies are the business aristocrats, while something as grubby as fast food ranks as the peasantry. At the same point in his career when Gianni Agnelli was racing Ferraris and bedding Jackie Kennedy, Pudzer was sweating the details of the Frisco Breakfast and Double Big Cheeseburger Combo. Perhaps Fiat would be better positioned today had Agnelli been similarly devoted to product improvement rather than social advancement. Puzder’s appointment as an American ambassador is a testament to a fundamental strength of the US economy: its capacity to reward and elevate social outsiders hungry to succeed in whatever business opportunities they find.
Assuming Brussels Eurocrats can overcome their distaste for trade in general and American food in particular, they could learn quite a bit about reviving their moribund economies from the new US ambassador. American fast food franchises are one of the country’s great wealth escalators. The arterial highways radiating from every American city are lined with budget hotels and chain restaurants, often owned by first generation immigrant families. These commercial strips may be aesthetically appalling, but they represent economic opportunity. A modest franchise fee, as little as $25,000 for a Hardee’s restaurant, coupled with minimal licensing requirements, makes these businesses attractive to families who may not possess formal credentials, or even fluent English, but do have the desire to work really hard. Rather than retreating to ethnic enclaves, reliant on state handouts, recent immigrants to the US can realise their dreams of prosperity and social advancement. It is difficult to nurse violent designs on a society comprised of one’s customers.
Where are Europe’s wealth escalators? Largely absent: a regulatory structure suitable to Airbus or BMW poses insurmountable obstacles when adopted as national templates and applied to small business. A Turk in Berlin may open a döner kebab Schnell Imbiss, but will never employ more than his immediate family, much less expand with the marketing help available to the franchisee of an American restaurant chain. Onerous licensing requirements imposed on European entrepreneurs thwart the ambitions of the talented but uncredentialed. European banks won’t loan to an undercapitalized bright spark, who can’t then turn to venture capitalists keen to spot a lucrative opportunity. Consider the companies now regarded by EU regulators as dangerous behemoths. Google, Meta and Amazon were all founded by alpha geeks without formal credentials or bank funding, but with a willingness to work insanely hard to realize their ambitions.
European labour regulations stifle start-ups like these that grew fast by offering employees lucrative stock options in exchange for punishing hours and extreme personal commitments. Prohibiting a boss from calling employees at home might strike French regulators as enlightened, but is completely at odds with the start-up culture that created Silicon Valley. Ambitious young Europeans are voting with their feet, seeking opportunities in America that governments in Europe seek to protect them from in the name of work-life balance. Which would Europe rather have, employees unbothered by a weekend call from the boss, or companies capable of competing with American tech giants? It cannot have both, especially if it drives away young entrepreneurs seeking opportunities at the leading edge of technological change. The less tech-savvy in Europe need access to the wealth escalators that offer prosperity to recent immigrants to the US. Thierry Breton and Mario Draghi may not qualify as hungry young men seeking the company of hot chicks who like burgers, but they could learn a lot about reviving the EU economy if they make a lunch date with Ambassador Puzder.
Burgers optional.
The new EU defence commissioner, not much money, not much influence