Item — HN Reader

You realize the major colonizers comprise only 6 nations in the EU (7 if you count Russia, 8 if you count Turkey), and not all of them are that well off these days despite their past riches? (Spain and Portugal, Russia if you include them)

Not to mention countries like Poland and other soviet bloc nations that were the ones getting occupied, not the ones doing the occupying until VERY recently? And in saying "Europe", you're also including the non-EU Balkan states, Switzerland, the Nordics, Ukraine, Russia and depending on how you decide to split things, even Turkey?

Yet despite the MAJORITY of the nations here not being colonizers or having colonial histories, they all have all the comforts you mention in your comment, with things getting steadily better for the average Joe.

And what precisely did the glorious US manage to get with all their wealth, power and splendour, where people live in fear of ever having to go to a doctor's office lest they be indebted for the rest of their lives? Where you can get fired on the schizophrenic whims of the C-levels demanding the stones be squeezed for every last drop of blood?

1 comments

"And what precisely did the glorious US manage to get with all their wealth,"

You're not going to get some defense of the US here, there's well known connections between America's tryst with Slavery and Jim Crow and its dysfunctional government services.

But I'd love to see a Venn diagram of countries that "Actually Colonized" (tm) and countries with really generous welfare systems/labor protections. I am guessing it'll be close to a single circle w/ some countries that are actually just a bunch of banks in a trench coat, sitting on the outside (looking at you Switzerland).

Letting most of your population twiddle your thumbs all summer without any consequences means you're mortgaging some sort of early lead, that's really all it is. Europeans don't have some magic productivity pill for the rest of the year that keeps you ahead of the curve.

> Letting most of your population twiddle your thumbs all summer without any consequences

What do you think the unemployment rate actually is in European countries?

Having a social safety net doesn't make most people want to loaf around. I get that there's a massive amount of propaganda on this point in the US, but like, it doesn't hold up to the slightest bit of scrutiny.

> I'd love to see a Venn diagram of countries that "Actually Colonized" (tm) and countries with really generous welfare systems/labor protections.

I encourage you to try diagramming that and see how it goes. Don't forget to include Ireland and the Nordics ;) And always remember that correlation isn't causation.

While you're at it, maybe have a look at the research on inequality, or the benefits of social safety nets.