[ChuckNorris89]

You're seriously mistaken. Good luck being a plumber in most EU countries with only commanding the English language. That may work in tech but on a construction site or any blue collar job the customer or your boss will address you in the local language not English or your native tongue and if you don't speak it then you're a huge liability for the business.

Also, all bureaucratic issues with the banks and local authorities for setting up a business if you're self employed are also not done in English but in the local language.

Try getting a blue collar job in Germany, and I don't mean a barista in a hip touristic district where all clients are foreigners. You're expected to pick up the local language yesterday.

The US having English as the default language everywhere means much less friction for everyone including foreigners be them employees or entrepreneurs.

[TheOtherHobbes]

And yet - the people I know who did everything I said are still there, doing what they did.

There's certainly less language friction in the US.

But there is far, far more economic and class friction.

And most people can pick up the basics of a language.

[jusssi]

In construction there's actually plenty of foreign subcontractors. They just bring a whole team, so it's enough if one of them knows the language well enough to understand what they'll need to do.

Edit: In general, I won't disagree with you that language is a real barrier for employment in EU.