The whole 'military explains everything' point isn't really accurate. Many US troops stationed in Europe were paid for by Europe. Most US military spending was

The whole 'military explains everything' point isn't really accurate. Many US troops stationed in Europe were paid for by Europe. Most US military spending was on things other then Europe. Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afganistan, non have anything to do with Europe. Lots of military spending was needed even if the US had been by itself. And the US made lots of money selling military equipment to Europe. Depending on what nations you compare it to, the difference during the cold war was a few % of GDP. Not enough to explain all the difference in social and other state programs. As the difference in spending is often 15-20%pt or more. So the real difference is clearly willingness for taxation and social programs. And of course nations like Finland and Sweden were never part of NATO.