[sastaha]

"I think the culture in the United States of, cut costs aggressively by firing people, is really shitty when everything in our lives from healthcare to food to housing is utterly dependent on our jobs. If this were not the case, I would be on board with the completely callous way of running a business, but the reality is that we rely on our jobs to give us basic services that are funded publicly in other countries."

In all European countries people are responsible for paying for food, and they pay a lot more for food than Americans do thanks to EU protectionism. Apart from a few parts of Europe like Vienna, public housing is the preserve of the low-income, not too different from America's Section 8 housing program. A computer programmer would not qualify for subsidized housing. Most housing is purchased in the big bad free market. Europe does have a universal healthcare system, but other than that the vision of Europe held by left-wing Americans is a utopian fantasy.