[FredPret]

Having been to both, this is… false.

I hope you’re not basing this on news reports, because that’s never going to give you an accurate picture.

In the US, I was blown away by the amount of wealth even “poor” Americans have, and how friendly, optimistic, and happy everyone is.

In Europe, I only saw this in the richest few countries, and even there most people seemed to be stuck in some sort of constrained, nice-but-middle class mode of life.

To be clear, I really loved Europe - and Europeans - and it does better with some important things - healthcare, walkability, baking bread, no mass shootings.

But there’s a clear difference overall, and it goes the other way.

[hotpotamus]

> A recent Times/Siena poll found that only 2 percent of registered voters said economic conditions are “excellent,” and only 16 percent said they were “good.”[0]

Anecdotally, the Americans I talk to are saying things are worse than I've ever heard them say in my life. My parents used to have an unshakeable work ethic, but after my mom's company was bought up by private equity and squeezed for every penny, I've never seen her less happy to go to work. And she's far from alone.

[0]https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/11/opinion/economy-biden-vib...

[trgn]

> how friendly, optimistic, and happy everyone is.

True. But this is just cultural. Europeans complain more, it's what they do.

[askonomm]

One could argue it's our constant complaining that leads to things such as proper minimum wage (that actually gets increased almost yearly), 1 month per year vacations that are defined as human rights that employers can't take away from us, sick days that employers can't take away from us, overtime that employers can't force on us, healthcare that's mostly the same for the poor as for the wealthy, and so on, and so on.