Europe converged rapidly on the United States before stagnating

Aspirations, quality of life, and “who should emulate whom”

• Several Americans say their goal is to get rich enough to move to Europe; they see Europe as valuing humans and public goods over corporations.
• Many Europeans in the thread are baffled that some compatriots want a more US‑style model, which they view as a cautionary tale of inequality, health insecurity, and social fragmentation.
• Counterpoints: US tech salaries can be far higher, and in many US regions entry‑level workers can still buy houses; others reply that this ignores healthcare, education, and other costs.

Growth, pensions, and economic models

• One line of argument: European welfare and pension systems implicitly assume ongoing growth; without it, promises become unaffordable.
• Critics ask why systems were built on indefinite growth; defenders rephrase this as a drive for “constant improvement” rather than literal infinity.
• Some warn Europe is losing competitiveness and “squandering” accumulated human and economic capital; others argue being the biggest economy is only an enabler, not the ultimate goal.

Capitalism, alternatives, and inequality

• Books like Against the Machine and Capitalist Realism are cited to express unease with growth‑at‑all‑costs and the sense that capitalism has no visible alternative.
• Historical socialist/communist experiments are invoked as worse—mass starvation, economic collapse—leading some to accept capitalism as “least bad.”
• Others respond that capitalism has similar power abuses; failure of past alternatives does not prove current systems are good.
• Proposals raised: shorter workweeks, UBI, and conscious redistribution of gains from automation; debate over how much taxing billionaires can really fund welfare.

US vs EU welfare, immigration, and labor

• Anecdotes compare Spanish health insurance ($2k/year for a family) to US costs ($20k+), reinforcing the idea that Americans must “get rich to buy into a functional system.”
• One view: the US economy is driven by fear (weak safety nets) plus aspirational billionaires, and depends heavily on undocumented labor as a disposable underclass.
• Another view highlights existing US safety nets (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security), charities, and the military as a career ladder, and stresses the huge advantage from attracting educated immigrants.
• This “brain drain” is criticized as ethically dubious, since destination countries benefit from education funded by origin countries.

Regulation, GDP metrics, and debt

• Multiple commenters say the article’s critique of EU regulation is one‑sidedly pro‑US/pro‑business: EU rules often exist to enable fair trade (definitions, product standards) and protect safety and living standards, not just to obstruct growth.
• Proposals like a “28th regime” and looser product standards are seen by some as a path to a race to the bottom and easier capture by capital.
• Others argue EU living standards are built on unsustainable debt and low growth, and that relative economic decline could become a security risk (e.g., versus Russia).
• There is skepticism about using “output per head”/GDP as a simple scoreboard: US growth is tied to high deficits, shale oil economics, medicalized obesity, and large tech platforms; more GDP does not necessarily mean better lives.

Demographics, demand vs supply, and structural context

• There’s a brief dispute over whether Europe is “aging” (links are shared that median age is rising, contradicting one claim it’s falling).
• One commenter notes that the post‑war boom was a unique, supply‑constrained era; today most markets are demand‑constrained, making rapid growth harder regardless of policy.

Media narratives and lived experience

• A Dutch commenter claims local media underplays Europe’s stagnation; after living in the US, they see much higher US incomes and easier homeownership.
• Other Dutch and European voices counter that when accounting for healthcare, infrastructure, and risk, median welfare looks better in places like the Netherlands, even if top earners do better in the US.
• Some Europeans say they don’t care if the EU “falls behind” on GDP as long as people are housed, fed, and able to travel; they see US dominance as driven by a few corporations and billionaires, not broad wellbeing.