>This chart provides a false picture of R&D spending as European countries do in fact provide a lot of R&D to the global economy in ways that benefit regular pe

>This chart provides a false picture of R&D spending as European countries do in fact provide a lot of R&D to the global economy in ways that benefit regular people. Even if you consider defense RnD spending "useless" (its not), look at pharmaceutical spending. https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/health_glance-2015-70-en.pdf?expires=1634154957&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=4B8C0DC6CE151B9C660C1A0747C070A0 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/health_glance-2015-7... Why don't we nail down one of these countries you're describing, so we can directly compare the spending? >but regardless of this fact are you implying that since the US subsidizes so much for the other countries that Americans deserve to live in this second rate system where everyone is on their own? Where did I say that? You asked why other countries can do X. One of the reasons is because they don't have to pay for Y. If other countries could not longer rely on the US or China, we would see a much different picture. >First point that is always made is we should be happy that US employees makes so much more salary. What you fail to understand is that Europeans are coming from an environment where they had good schooling, probably no debt from University and made it to adulthood without any health issues thanks to good healthcare and good healthy food policies. So why abandon that environment? >Furthermore Europeans ALWAYS have an exit strategy to go back to a system that has all these fundamentals. The US employee may be paid better but they grew up and live in an environment where everybody else is sinking due to the lack of these fundamental systems. Do you have evidence for this? >Secondly on a tangental point, Europeans love to talk about how Americans have access to a billion options for snacks and food. What they fail understand is that if you have grown up in this environment of corn laden garbage it is a prison that is difficult to escape. It is easy for Europeans to be in awe coming from an upbringing of whole nutritious foods. Its another thing to realize how much more expensive it is to eat healthy in the US vs Europe thanks to policies that were in place before even I was born (88). That's the first time I've heard of this. Normally I hear "wow, you're going to pay 3x as more for the same job I was doing in Spain?" Look, you asked why countries are different and I gave an answer. You're now debating whether or not that is "good". You're also leaving out countless negatives about these countries you're alluding to.