| > Not to turn this into some weird anti-pissing contest of "my country is worse than yours," Fair enough, though I wasn’t trying to imply that either. > it's pretty clear that the Nordic model of capitalism is basically as good as capitalism gets I can agree from the data and personal experience, that the QoL for the lower/middle classes in the EU is better than most of the world. However, I don’t think that it’s as pronounced as the local EU politicians would have you believe, when they advocate for higher taxes every year. That’s essentially the divide I’m talking about in my comments - the broken capitalist dystopia of it all. They set the benchmark somewhere in between the USA and the post-colonial world, and act like they’ve solved everything. > reducing the consequences of failure from "total personal and financial ruin" to something more manageable is more likely to encourage people to take chances that may or may not pay off. That's what economic freedom really is. Yes, I agree that this sounds intuitive. Unfortunately, the EU has one of the least risk-taking people I’ve ever seen. People don’t startup nor attempt businesses. > Are you just saying that people you talk to are saying what I said, but without the facts and figures? Not exactly, but rather, they are unaware of the situation outside their social bubble in NL. And see memes about the USA and think they’re doing great. |