Not if you slice it by spending as a percentage of GDP, in which case the US ranks above average among NATO members but does not especially stand out. Of total NATO military spending, about two thirds comes from the US mainly because of its large productive capacity. Most of the NATO members, especially in eastern and southern Europe, are simply not very rich countries. Indeed, those three I mentioned are all rich Nordic countries (the top 10 is rounded out by Israel and Gulf states).

If you want to reduce military reliance on the US, which you unequivocally should do, it will require either significant investments in defense or the acceptance of a significant reduction in military assets and preparedness for the EU as a whole.

It’s a fiction that European NATO members spend little and rely only on the US for defence. None but the US itself could realistically oppose a coalition of non-US NATO members. This is precisely why increased spending is necessary, to hedge against the uncertainty of an increasingly erratic and authoritarian US.

Of the top 10 countries in military spending per capita (as of 2023), three are European NATO members.

Israel has neither universal health care, nor free education.

Also, any of the extant universal health care systems are cheaper than the current US health care system, so it’s not like saving money elsewhere would enable the funding of universal health care in the US.

They generally are, in rich countries. In poorer countries with less developed infrastructure you can still commonly find them.

If you want to go to Europe, don’t apply for asylum. This has no chance of succeeding, even for people from war-torn countries with ongoing genocides it is difficult.

The easiest way is to apply for a study visa. There are many EU countries with very good education, very low requirements for admission, and very low (or even no) tuition fees, even for non-EU students. Once you have a degree, you are anchored and can find a job and get citizenship without too much difficulty.

The alternative is to apply for a job. In this case you need some marketable skill that is difficult to find among the locals.

Median household income isn’t the same as GDP per capita. Moreover, both the value of GDP and the correction for PPP are dependent on the methodology to estimate them.

The shortest average work week globally is found in the Netherlands, where it is 30 hours per week. There are also substantial daycare subsidies, a quarterly sum paid per child, and the highest minimum income guarantee in the world. The fertility rate, while not at South Korea levels, is 1.44, well below replacement level.

The definition of insanity: continuing to run your game company horribly and expecting different results.

Unfortunately, her case will almost surely be denied since the US has been designated a safe country by Dutch officials, and the trend in most of Europe, under pressure from racist voters and the surging popularity of fascism, is to make the already extremely strict asylum rules even stricter. In some cases (e.g. Denmark) refugee asylum has been all but abolished, in an egregious violation of treaties on assisting refugees (and preventing genocide).

The good news for people like Arc is that for US citizens it is overwhelmingly easier to obtain residency status legally in the EU in countries like the Netherlands, compared to getting a Green Card in the US. She probably should have figured that out before panicking and booking that flight.

Those are laudable goals, but the appetite for democratic reforms currently seems rather anaemic in the US.

After all this time, still no one has managed to convey Trump even a rudimentary understanding of what tariffs are, and what the EU is.

Unfortunately, many UK voters don’t realize they’re setting themselves on the same path in the next election. The UK has one of the most fragile democracies in Europe, and its system is ill-prepared for a fascist majority in the Commons. Farage may be less of a moron than Trump (a low bar), but his voters are cut from the same cloth as Trump’s.

If it makes you feel better, the graph only goes to 2018, and the gap has widened since then.

Will be?

Imagine going back in time to 1943 to the Auschwitz concentration camp and telling one of the Jewish prisoners that not only is there a Jewish state called Israel in the Middle East, but it is run by a fascist regime whose leader grabbed power in a self-coup and spends his time cozying up to and defending anti-Semites. What would they find harder to believe?

USD counts for about 58% of global currency reserves. That’s the largest by far to be sure, but far from the only relevant one, and the ratio has been steadily trending downwards (though interestingly, it hasn’t been the euro it lost ground to).

Far less efficient, even. There are losses due to conversion, and further losses due to material cost being higher than simple electrical heaters, and more losses due to the innate negative value generated by Bitcoin, which is used exclusively for crime and gambling.

The most surprising about these findings is that there apparently is non-hate speech on X.

Well, you do you, but I prefer to actually get work done when I’m at work. If I don’t like my work anymore (well, it’s not my hobby, but still not that bad), I’ll go work somewhere else.

I have a 35-hour week with flexible hours so I could put it in 3 days if I wished. That seems awful to me though, I can’t really focus on my work anymore after 6 hours. All a matter of perspective I guess.