On the other hand, in recent decades I had a German colleague who was fully into treating furniture like "fast fashion". He loved things like IKEA and changing out whole sets of room furnishings on a whim. He tried to rationalize it as sensible to buy cheaper stuff since it was going to "be discarded anyway", and never really seemed to reflect on the idea that maybe he didn't need to change everything so often!

When I looked up average work week hours it actually looks like the US is comparable to most EU countries. Some states even have much better numbers than some EU members, like Greece (which is trending toward a lengthening work week).

https://landgeist.com/2022/02/08/average-weekly-working-hour...

It's important to remember that [flagged] often says something about the comments rather than the article.

In this case, though, the author's good intention is clear and the discussion seems at least relatively fine, so we can take off the flags and I've done that now.

But that’s not the author’s point.

“The reason I wanted to write this post is to share the idea that there is another way to live.”

It's the main thing I notice that aggravates me when I return to visit the USA: cars, cars everywhere, and few places that allow walking as a reasonable means of transport.

The main difference between the US and the EU is especially in how materialism is shown. In the US there is a strong trend to equate wealth with visible wealth, while in the EU that son of an Empire with three castles might look like a regular guy when you see him with his slightly upstandard car buying groceries at his retailer. Ans I know such people. European rich people don't look rich if you meet them, because displaying your wealth ostentaciously is seen as vulgar. Rich people feel they need to give back to society, so even if they have castles they are used for exhibitions or other community purposes.

This of course also exists in the US, but to a lesser degree and more often as a turn of the century sort of legacy thing

Europe as you know it, the things you like about it is fundamentally doomed because the system is designed to doom it. The EU that was a bait and switch, is now basically being run by a central committee called the EU Commission. Is fundamentally authoritarian and prone to the same failures as all hubristic central committees of know it alls.

It’s the iron triangle and the EU central committee is not only trying to pick all three while lying about it, they’re also trying to pick things outside of the triangle. It cannot and will not work because it is impossible for any amount of time.

You may enjoy it in Europe/Germany, freeloading on all the “social services” that are “free” (even though you will have surely noticed how that is changing quickly) due to the exploitation of what the indigenous people built over decades and centuries, but that’s really what it is, a fraud, even if you don’t realize it.

For example, you very likely make far beyond what the average person in Germany makes. You are living a nice life, based on what those old ethnically German people you see here and there did to rebuild the country after the war, and now get a mere €1000 per month to live on. That’s why you have “free and safe and efficient public transportation” and “free education” because they were exploited all their lives.

It is not a personal thing, it’s an issue with immigration in general as immigration is inherently freeloading when it is into a country that is more advanced or better. At the very least immigration to better countries should come with massive freeloader taxes, and immigration to worse countries should come with low-tax incentives. Just keep it in mind as you benefit from what you enjoy but did not contribute to, and quite likely also support politics of imposition from your island of exclusivity; the same politics that destroyed America.

You may not realize it, but the very same things and people that destroyed the rather nice America of the past are also now destroying Europe. You’re just riding the wave at the moment and get to enjoy the tail end of the oasis. I know this because, as unlikely and weird as it sounds, I know the people whose fathers and grandfathers, their families destroyed America and who are destroying Europe today.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

You're surely more knowledgeable than the author about America and Europe, but he's not commenting about the differences of those two things.

He's only remarking that he's observed a general difference in the mindsets in the two cultures.

As pointed out by another comment, it's a fairly broad observation that many have noticed.

> Beware of the man who claims to know it all.

One of the things I have seen, first hand, is when American's buy EU companies and start running them. Or when they open offices over here. The culture shock and friction is immediate. Meta, for example, basically did no labor law research before announcing a layoff, and got slapped hard by the locals. Took years for that process to finally resolve which induced a ton of stress for everyone working there. You also have founders over here that salivate at the Silicon Valley culture and want to emulate it, but for whatever reason don't actually want to move there. They also induce friction in their companies. For what it is worth, I don't want to work at a company with those kinds of cultural influences. And I want to make sure if those companies operate here, we tax them appropriately and force them to behave in an acceptable way that benefits society.