Yeah, its no accident that the U.S. is the number one economy, it comes from that kind of thinking across the populace. Complacency gets you conquered.
> its no accident that the U.S. is the number one economy
Sure, it's the largest by GDP, but how much of that GDP is filtering down to the regular people? Are Americans, on average happier and have better life outcomes than other developed nations?
> An absolutely insane amount. It's ridiculous just how wealthy and the quality of life the average American has compared to the world.
I've been there last year. This is absolutely not true compared to Europe, including post-soviet states. Might have been true a few decades back maybe. Of course, we can argue that the US citizens have it made compared to someone in Kenya (do they?) but that's not the spirit of the question, is it?
Depends where in Europe. Lots of Europeans suffer so other Europeans can prosper. Add to the fact that Europe still benefits from imperialism and that Europe is facing an existential crisis, I would take be the average American long-term.
I mean I know lot of Europe is quite poor but huge swath of it isn't really that far behind. Where were you visiting? I find if you stick to a lot of the Scandinavian countries or the major cities in the poorer regions it's quite nice.
I mean it is pretty clear if you look at the data around purchasing power of the median earner (~$44K/yr in US) the US is significantly higher than most EU countries.
So much that millions of people risk their lives or leave their families to come to this country. By this objective metric, it's literally the best country in the world's history.
If you read my comment, I asked if Americans are happier than people in developed countries. How many million Europeans, Canadians or Australians are risking their lives to come to the US?
Sure, if you're from say, Haiti, even the US will look very attractive, but the bar is pretty low there, wouldn't you say?
The reason someone has to risk his life to get to the US could be because the US is the greatest country, at the same time you could also consider the influence that the US in its history has had on other countries so that the life of the people are miserable there.
(e.g. backing and installing dictatorships[1], contributing massively to climate change, ...)
Migration isn't a US problem. Europe has it too. So as a country probably not, but that's also because the US is big and has a large land border to the south.
Immigration in Europe is different. Your immigration influx is not really the kind of force that will help push countries up. If anything, it is a drag. Of course I am generalizing highly, but for the most part you are bringing a new civilization that does not want to become European or help contribute to your growth. Some of your immigrants want to make you change your religion!
In fairness the same has happened in the US recently.
We could do with a little less of it IMO. But I have heard plenty from European expats about the entrenched complacency over there. I'm told people looking to improve some system or product run right into a wall of "Why bother?".
As a non-American I agree with this. There is a whole different energy to Americans in terms of mindset compared to Europeans (not just in business). I think Europe have outstanding talent, and when it comes together it can be exceptionally good and often in a more sustainable way than the American equivalent, but it's a somewhat sad fact that many of the most successful European companies have been successful by emulating (parts of) the American culture.
Number one economy yes, but other measures lag: education, health care outcomes, overall happiness, life expectancy...
I suspect that when you bring a competitive attitude into every aspect of life it limits how much you're willing to invest in systems that don't seem to give you an individual advantage. Americans are much more against single payer healthcare, or investing in public transit, or other forms of social support than their peer (or "near-peer", to use the government's preferred term) nations.
It almost feels like a comedic extrapolation of the classic sports-team movie arc: Sure, it's possible to create a team that prizes winning above all else, but is winning all that's worthwhile at the end of the day?
And of course it is because competitive mentality and not geography and industrial base that allowed it to not only ride WW1 and WW2 unscathed, but also leap over old European colonial powers that were busy trying to fucking kill each other.
