4 ms·

As a Swede I have a bunch of grievances with the EU but when I look at the US I can't help but feel how lucky I am to live on this side of the pond.

by lawn 12d ago

graemep 12d ago
I am British, pro-Brexit, and still prefer France to the US as a neighbour. I would have always said that - its not just Trump.
mcv 12d ago
Exactly. The EU has plenty of faults, but I don't see anything better. Improving on the EU is better than abandoning it.
WarmWash 12d ago
Keep in mind, social media and western online dialogue is extremely US centric. If every country was a house, the US is where everyone meets to party. So every spec of dust spawns endless content for everyone to dig into. Nevermind that people who have the most time to spend on social media, dictate the narratives that are popular. The reality is that the US better if you have money (like white collar salary man level) and (much) worse if you are an odds-and-ends gig economy type worker (like an influencer). From the vantage point of a ~75% income bracket home, moving to Europe is almost purely downsides (conventionally, some people give up everything for their dream to live in a cold dank cave), whereas being in a <50% income bracket home, Europe seems like a utopia.
- dmos62 11d ago
  You can't make that generalization. What you describe will be different city to city, not to mention country to country. Further, privacy and safety regulations (which are EU-wide) will not be available in US, independent of income. Though that's city or state dependent too, I guess. It's just too hard to make these offhand comparisons, unless we make them more concrete. I agree about social media distorting things. When I visited US, I was surprised that it's not GTA-like violence everywhere, haha. I feel silly sharing that. But, the biggest surprise was how friendly and warm strangers were. Memes didn't hint at that at all.

As a Swede I have a bunch of grievances with the EU but when I look at the US I can't help but feel how lucky I am to live on this side of the pond.

by lawn 12d ago

As a Swede I have a bunch of grievances with the EU but when I look at the US I can't help but feel how lucky I am to live on this side of the pond.

graemep 12d ago

I am British, pro-Brexit, and still prefer France to the US as a neighbour. I would have always said that - its not just Trump.

mcv 12d ago

Exactly. The EU has plenty of faults, but I don't see anything better. Improving on the EU is better than abandoning it.

WarmWash 12d ago

Keep in mind, social media and western online dialogue is extremely US centric. If every country was a house, the US is where everyone meets to party. So every spec of dust spawns endless content for everyone to dig into. Nevermind that people who have the most time to spend on social media, dictate the narratives that are popular. The reality is that the US better if you have money (like white collar salary man level) and (much) worse if you are an odds-and-ends gig economy type worker (like an influencer). From the vantage point of a ~75% income bracket home, moving to Europe is almost purely downsides (conventionally, some people give up everything for their dream to live in a cold dank cave), whereas being in a <50% income bracket home, Europe seems like a utopia.

dmos62 11d ago
You can't make that generalization. What you describe will be different city to city, not to mention country to country. Further, privacy and safety regulations (which are EU-wide) will not be available in US, independent of income. Though that's city or state dependent too, I guess. It's just too hard to make these offhand comparisons, unless we make them more concrete. I agree about social media distorting things. When I visited US, I was surprised that it's not GTA-like violence everywhere, haha. I feel silly sharing that. But, the biggest surprise was how friendly and warm strangers were. Memes didn't hint at that at all.