Many Europeans are risk averse and most Americans live to take a calculated risk with a potential big payoff. Like our pioneer forebears, most of are fundamentally optimistic chance takers, at least compared to the Europeans who did not take the big risk of crossing an ocean and settling in a New Land.
Western Wagons
They went with axe and rifle, when the trail was still to blaze,
They went with wife and children, in the prairie-schooner days,
With banjo and with frying pan—Susanna, don’t you cry!
For I’m off to California to get rich out there or die!
They went with wife and children, in the prairie-schooner days,
With banjo and with frying pan—Susanna, don’t you cry!
For I’m off to California to get rich out there or die!
We’ve broken land and cleared it, but we’re tired of where we are.
They say that wild Nebraska is a better place by far.
There’s gold in far Wyoming, there’s black earth in Ioway,
So pack up the kids and blankets, for we’re moving out today!
They say that wild Nebraska is a better place by far.
There’s gold in far Wyoming, there’s black earth in Ioway,
So pack up the kids and blankets, for we’re moving out today!
The cowards never started and the weak died on the road,
And all across the continent the endless campfires glowed.
We’d taken land and settled but a traveler passed by—
And we’re going West tomorrow—Lordy , never ask us why!
And all across the continent the endless campfires glowed.
We’d taken land and settled but a traveler passed by—
And we’re going West tomorrow—Lordy , never ask us why!
We’re going West tomorrow, where the promises can’t fail.
O’er the hills in legions, boys, and crowd the dusty trail!
We shall starve and freeze and suffer. We shall die, and tame the lands.
But we’re going West tomorrow, with our fortune in our hands.
O’er the hills in legions, boys, and crowd the dusty trail!
We shall starve and freeze and suffer. We shall die, and tame the lands.
But we’re going West tomorrow, with our fortune in our hands.
Stephen Vincent Benet
To be fair, it’s a lot easier to finance a welfare/leisure state when you let another country handle most of your national defense obligations. Almost time for those bills to start being sent where they belong, again. As in, starting tomorrow. 😁
To be fair, some of the disagreeable aspects of American living are the sort missed by national income accounting. That would include high rates of violent crime, bad urban planning, and lower life expectancy.
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You have to be careful with the data on domestic product for some places as in some cases they’re manifestations of natural resource bonanzas or of the utility of the country in question as a tax haven and thus where corporate earnings are booked. In these cases, domestic product and experienced standards-of-living diverge. Ireland would be an example of that.
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it’s a lot easier to finance a welfare/leisure state when you let another country handle most of your national defense obligations.
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Somewhat easier. IIRC, the ratio of military spending to domestic product in Europe is about 40% lower than our own. That’s sloughing off to the tune of about 1.6% of gross domestic product per year.
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No clue where the original poster got the idea that ‘Europe has a much lower cost of living’ or the idea that there is no ‘welfare system’ in the United States. Or that anything is ‘free’ other than air and insects.
Assuming these numbers are accurate, NATO has gotten a lot better:
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/econographics/whos-at-2-percent-look-how-nato-allies-have-increased-their-defense-spending-since-russias-invasion-of-ukraine/#:~:text=In%20total%2C%20NATO%20countries%20now,of%20their%20GDP%20on%20defense.
In Poland’s defense, they have gone above and beyond in defense spending.
It is the Western European nations that get on my nerves. Twice the USA had to get involved and put an end to their wars. Geez, Europeans have been fighting each other since before the Roman Empire existed. The Americans put an end to it.