[Workaccount2]

Europe has this delusion that they can keep living their magically relaxed life, and continue to both fund it and stay relevant on the world stage.

FYI, the big players today are the US and China. Nobody has the heart to call and tell Europeans that they aren't really part of the future, they're still away on their 8th week long holiday of the year.

Not staying economically relevant is far (far) more harmful to society than forgoing social media.

[delbronski]

Yeah sure, because life in the USA is so much more awesome than in Europe. Naww, they can keep their relevancy in the world stage. We are good over here living in the "stone age".

[Workaccount2]

The problem isn't that Europe is living in the stone age, clearly they aren't. The problem is that they are living in the modern age entirely on the back of foreign tech. Chinese hardware running American software. Industry running on American energy, and protection totally reliant on American defense (the US spent more money per capita in Ukraine than the EU did...). This doesn't even factor in generous welfare programs that will need to be funded by a shrinking population(!) that doesn't have cutting edge skills anymore.

Europe decided to vacation for the last 30 years rather than go to work. The fruit of the post-war era was bountiful, and bank accounts were healthy, so why not take time off? Stone age is not a good way to describe Europe today, but over the next 10-20 years it very well may become more appropriate. European leaders are keenly aware of this, but man is it hard to convince the kids that they need to end their vacation, especially when it is all they have ever known.

[delbronski]

This is the story American billionaires tell poor Americans every day. Those lazy Europeans may have it good now, but just you wait another 10 years. That affordable healthcare? There won’t be a doctor left! All those parents having a year of paternity leave? Unsustainable!

You guys keep working 80% harder! We will keep 99% of the profits, but don’t worry it will eventually trickle down to you. Hey, maybe one day there will be enough cash left over to fix our healthcare and education systems. Those Europeans are asleep on the wheel. Always protesting and striking and vacationing. Those fools.

[DrScientist]

> Chinese hardware running American software

Who designed the chip in your phone? Is it more likely to be Intel (US) or is it more likely to be ARM (UK)?

Where does Linux ( which pretty much runs the entire internet from routers to servers ) originate from?

> Industry running on American energy

Eh? While EU imports of US gas are on the rise due to the Ukraine war ( and the blowing up of Russian pipelines which, BTW, the US is implicated in ) - it's a fraction of total energy.

> protection totally reliant on American defense

So the US bases on British islands in the Indian Ocean, or in Japan ( put there after the end of the war with ... Japan ) are purely for the benefit of others and not in anyway part of US global interests?