American Reacts to America is NOT Europe... 

When I mention that the USA has “universal healthcare” but nobody qualifies for it, I was MOCKING IT. I was being sarcastic 😂😂 and I thought i conveyed that by how I said it in the video. 🎉 That’s how patriotic Americans defend the USA by mentioning that we have MedicAid and MediCare… and in reality I’m here thinking “than why don’t I qualify for them then if they’re universal “ 🤣

If you don't qualify for it, it's not universal.

I remember watching the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 & seeing thousands of people stuck in the superdome in New Orleans. They had no power, no clean water and the plumbing system was not working. The 20,000 or so people were effectively on their own. And that's when it dawned on me. This is how the USA works. It really is everyone for themselves.

Being European is expensive as well. But it does bring peace of mind to know that neither my kids education nor my healthcare will push me towards bankruptcy.

Germany is also a Federal Republic. We have 16 states who have their own parliament. We also have two chambers at the federal Level. Bundestag and Bundesrat. Bundestag has representatives from all parties according to how much percent they got in the federal election. Bundesrat has representatives from all parties according to the number of heads of states.

I am a cancer patient in Belgium. Not only was my treatment covered (including 5 weeks hospitalisation in an isolated room for stem cell transplantation ), but I also get a monthly salary (2000€ in my case) by the healthcare. The amount is based on your salary before you got I’ll, but also people that were officially unemployed before get the minimum wage salary. My monthly blood check-up cost me about 15€ and I am still getting a medicine worth 5000€/ month for free.

All countries of Europe are different from each other and regions within those countries can differ quite a bit. The Netherlands has only private healthcare insurance but it’s heavy regulated so it’s affordable for everyone. And if you’re not able to pay for it, you’l get an allowance from the government.

Sounds so sad that many American kids can't even walk to school by themselves, let alone not play outside. That's not a childhood 😔

The US seems to be run by, and for, big businesses, which doesn't really happen in Europe, people and the environment are given more importance. Europe isn't perfect, but i think our priorities are better.

THE most important difference to me is : I dont know anyone sending their children to school in bullit proof vests and backpacks.. IT`S NOT 1899 ANYMORE !!!

So nice to see an American looking at this globally, rather than just sitting in a corner saying that America is the best place in the world like some. 👍

My main problem with employer healtcare is that if you lose your job, you loose your health care.

To me, one huge difference in politics is the amount of parties ! You got Rep vs. Dem But here we got 4 to 5 parties who truly present varied ideas and solutions It's not a 1v1 "war" between two "communities" but a weird and complex consensus to reach a common goal And overall, the general political education is much higher !

I think its false equivalency, for country its size and population the US is remarkably uniform- US is diverse in geographical sense, and so is Europe, but when it comes to culture the states of US are way less diverse than not just European countries but e.g. German states or Chinese provinces. Europe and European countries are culturally, and even ethnically, almost incomparably more diverse than US states- thats one of reasons EU politics is so much more complicated than US ones. Californians, Floridians and e.g. Ohioans are virtually identical when compared to Bavarians or Berliners, Belgians and e.g. Greeks.

I grew up in the 70's and 80's. The rule at home was to be back home when it gets dark. Living in northern England, this could be as late as 10pm in the summer. I used to play in the park with my mates every day until it went dark, cycling, football, cricket, building 'dens'. Of course there were no smartphones and (almost) no computers in those days.

In austria we have no general minimum wage at all. Instead we have almost complete unionization and 98% of employment is regulated by collective bargaining agreements. There are over 800 such collective agreements in our small country which regulate the minimum wages and employment conditions in great detail for every type of business and every year our trade unions negotiate on new minimum wages for every single one of them. e.g. i work in IT and our IT agreement lists specifically for different types of work and experiences how much you need to earn at bare minimum (e.g. a junior IT support guy has a lower minimum wage than a software architect with 20 years of experience).

when people are scred to call an ambulance i mean i rest my case

The weirdest thing for me as an European is that you only have to parties with such a diverse population and as a german I know only having few options creates more extreme positions

It shouldn't matter if one state is cheaper than another...the fact is an iphone costs basically the same everywhere...so all wages need to reflect that. Yes the expensive places will usually have higher wages but nowhere near the big gap there is in the US. Minimum wage should be the same nationwide no matter the cost differences between areas...it should be based on the cost of living in the most expensive state but maybe more humble accommodation. This minimum wage should be the same even in West Virginia where it might be really cheap to buy or rent a house (this gives the people living there the option of living in an area that might not be the best but they can live extremely comfortably or move but sacrifice cheap living). This makes it possible for people there to bring themselves out of poverty and either make the area a better place or leave and go somwhere else. The only wages that should be different is of course jobs where the wages are double, triple and more than minimum...here is where companies and employees decide the wages for each particular job in each particular area...this is where the wage difference should be...not the government mandated minimum but the companies vying for good employees and paying for it.

If there were more people like You, world would be a lot better place. 😊

I disagree with the statements of Justice Scalia that having two different parliaments (house and senat) explains the situation in the USA. Germany and Austria have a federal parliamentary republic with two legislative chambers. Consider Germany which has two legislative chambers, the bundestag on a federal level and the bundesrat with representatives from the local states (Länder). The Bundestag has elected our Government (as of April 2023 this is formed by a coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP). Currently, all but one of the 16 Länder are governed by coaltions and in 9 of these Länders parties that are ruling on the federal level coalize with parties that are in the opposition on the state level! So compromise is how we come up with new laws and these laws are not changed after each election. Which is not the case in Countries where you have majority votes like the USA ore the UK. I think you stated it much better why Europe is not the US: The American way is to make almost anything - including prisons - into a business that seeks to maximize the benefits of the owners. So I don't think that the American healthcare system or the prison system is broken in respect to the objective (share holder value and not customer value or society value). It is here in which we have differences between the welfare states of Europe in contrast to the capitalism of the USA. We simply have different values for our society.

US, Tax to spend on the military industrial complex. EU, tax to spread opportunity for everyone. It's like paying for private health insurance, but the government collect the premiums and can then regulate cost of medication costs through centralised purchasing power

Switzerland is actually very close to the USA when it comes to structure. We are a federation made of 26 Cantons (states) each with their own government and chambers. Each canton is also further divided into communes with their own government. We also have a bicameral system with one chamber representing the population and the other one the states. So don’t believe that it is a rare thing and that USA is so unique in this regard, it is not. And Switzerland still have a good functioning system. So you cannot blame the situation of the USA just because of its structure, it’s a combination of many thing. One different between Switzerland and the USA is that we don’t just have 1 person governing, we have 7, and I believe this is a great thing. The governance doesn’t switch from left to right every time someone is elected. You have 7 federal counselors from different parties that govern together and who have to find compromises. All 7 counselors don’t change all at once. They are elected for 4 years and then can be re-elected. Usually not more than 2 at a time retires and then 2 new are elected. The 7 counselors also match the political representation of the biggest parties and are from different linguistic regions. Switzerland has an additional struggle compare to USA is that we have 4 official languages and you also have to deal with it in parliament. Lol

I really appreciate with your videos, is that you express really wise and down to earth opinions and very balanced.and when you react you have something to say and to add, which is really not the case for the most of other youtubers. Salute from France

The American system might be complicated, but Belgium has 6 different governments, all supposed to have equal power, and some places (namely Brussels) could have to interact with 3 major governments at the same time, on top of the regular municipal governments...

My son visited me in Europe and we were sitting and relaxing in the yard. Suddenly he perked up and looked around as if listening for something. Upon my questioning glance, he grinned and explained. "Been here for about two weeks now and I have yet to hear a police siren. It's weird, but I like it!". To me it is priceless to live in a peaceful and safe country where maybe taxes are higher, but where social cohesion and care is so much better.

Does the average American know Where is Europe?

I checked. This video was made by a Dutch. I am surprised about his level of simplification. The USA is a federal state as is Germany. So that would be the correct level of comparison. France is a centralized state. Totally different political structure. Most northern European countries are constitutional monarchies. The French president has similar powers as the US president. Far different from the German president, who has more of a representative function (plus veto right). The diversity of the EU setup (And "Europe" is more than just the EU member states) can't be just thrown into one salad bowl, and the outcome then be compared with the US.

Ian, great videos again. Please visit parts of Europe one day and document your experiences 🙌 Prague, München

That is the difference between europe and the usa. The USA has such a high level of debt, and it continues to increase immeasurably. The rich there certainly laugh about the low taxes and become richer and richer, and the little man carries the whole burden and does not know what to live on.

Healthcare for Mericans costs 3-4 times more than here in the EU. Still life expectancy is much lower and going down.

Australia also is a federation of States, however, while the running of hospitals etc are state based, Medicare is federally funded. There is a lot more cooperation between states. Most income tax is collected federally and redistributed to the states for the running of hospitals and other health services. Australia also has a very strong bicameral system of government. The Senate has a lot of power to pass or veto bills that have managed to get through the lower house.

Interesting vid Ian, nicely handled! :)

Australia has a bicameral government! It seems to work pretty well here....oh I forgot - we're all socialists 😂

Home in time for dinner for the summer (DST) or when the street lights came on in the winter when I was younger, as in under 10-12. When I was older in my teens it was "are you going to be home for dinner?"

Speaking of taxes, the main difference I can tell, and it's confusing, is the US sales tax. We don't have that in Europe. You know, the price tag in the US says 99c, the store is even called ''99 Cents Only Store'', however the moment you get to pay for your 99c item, it's in fact 99c + whatever sales tax the state/county imposes as a sales tax.

You might pay less in taxes but the money saved is spent on health insurance.

"Too many cooks spoil the broth!" Greed and selfishness are like the Plague - it's always where's my cut? Less for you means more for the few! Australians nearly always receive an annual tax refund, particularly young families, and small businesses! Children learn far more from experiencing life rather than watching it from a phone, computer or tv, I was free to explore the world, as long as I was home for dinner! 🤔

The guy saying that the US judiciary are independent is a joke. The Supreme court is appointed by the President albeit with Senate approval.

Germany might be an interesting test case as it is a federal country with sixteen separate states and a federal government which often has to negotiate over policy etc. It was designed by British and American lawyers after world war two and is sort of what they thought their governments should be like.

Yes, there are big differences within Europe but those differences are small compared to the differences between Europe and USA.

The logic of the argument around state vs federal escapes me. Europe has a EU level, a Eurozone level, a nation level, and depending on the nation typically at least 2 or 3 more levels. I'm in Germany, which is itself highly federal, so I have a state, a governmental district in that state, a "circle", and a "community", both of the latter are just literal translations. Each of these have an election, an executive, a legislative council, a constitution, etc. and for something like school you'd also have to add another hierarchy in the school system itself, since there is often more than one school in a community, and not everybody in that school has the same power, with principal, vice-principal, school boards, parents & student councils, etc. Tell me again how in the US 3 founding parts to a school make it impossible to solve? The US has at least 3 layers less than Germany, and I could think of many ways it could be better here with infinite resources, but objectively speaking it is pretty good, not quite Scandinavia perhaps in some points, but it certainly works.

It was interesting to me that a researcher that has looked into something in detail caused you to stop the video and then mention that your personal experience differed from it. This seems to be a common thread for many US citizens to disagree with something if their own experience differs, even when they demonstrate sound reasoning for most things.

here in Australia we do have charges in both city, states and federal, yet taxes mostly run by federal government.

I just don't know how there aren't "more of me in the USA"like I'm German born raised still living here and one of the biggest regrsts my parents have (had) is that they didn't start to teach me "Lifeskills like household and co in earlier years." Meanwhile, I still had to go to the bakery every once in a while (and that was defintiley out of window view) am not saying our parents don't watch the clock too but still somehow sometimes I'm amazed that there are even slightly independt adults in the United Statse if "Air is to dangerous to breath by now/soon."

when he said his kids were of course too young at the moment to be outside alone anyways, I had to think about myself going to Kindergarten (the german meaning) at the age of 4 all by myself. I had a cooking spoon with me so I could open up the front door by tapping the door buzzer 😂

I cant imagine not having real universal healthcare. My husband is a type one diabetic and had a quad bypass some years back, not one debt from that and he had one of the leading heart surgeons in our state do the surgery. Diabetes meds cost a small amount and once we reach a certain amount of prescriptions for medications a year as a family we get all medication free for the rest of the year or if on a higher income for about $7 a prescription. We don't have perfection but its pretty nice to know that if you are in a car crash or whatever you are not going to be hit for a debt that would bankrupt you

Ohhh the 90s coming off your bike to ride home bloody, playing in the street was only interrupted by 1 word (CAR). The great outdoors the 1 part of my childhood id never trade

that first clip, has a longer version... plz react to that too!

Back in the 80s my mum would say " Don't come home until the sun goes down."

Nobody talks about the real issue. It’s not the insurance but the cost. Healthcare (incl. Medicines) cost 10 times more in the US. It’s a skam and reflects in no way the actual costs. Big Pharma is not regulated in anyway. A normal doctors visit in Belgium costs 24€ without insurance!!! That’s regulated by the government. (The healthcare system will pay 20€ of that amount, so you only have to pay 4 € yourself) If you, as a US citizen, need surgery, I advise you to come to Europe. Your won’t be covered by any insurance and pay full price, but you won’t be ruined or in debt for the rest of your life. The same for medications : USA citizens go to Canada to buy EpiPens and inhalers because the full price there is multiple times cheaper than what you pay in the US (even with insurance)

I started on my own riding bus cross the city at 9 and picking my young brother to, this was end 90' start 2000' in Lisboa Portugal 🇵🇹

In Poland there is such a brothel in taxes that without a tax advisor you will not settle without making a mistake

Oh yeah that's true, I did the math and I would definitely pay more in taxes in the US (about twice as much, not to mention an extra three times that amount for the worst insurance I could find), and it would cover way less public services, so I don't really get that logic other than the fact that people seem to believe it when they read it online and then spread it everywhere.

I like these kind of videos, I have probably seen a hundred videos of people reacting to how things are better in Europe. But for once I would like to see a video showing what's good in the US, maybe compared to Europe. It can't be all that bad over there, can it?

@10:15 ur right, i grew up in a Belgian village, we were always enjoying our outdoor times. 90's

"To be Europe, or not to be Europe, that is the question."

My orders (that makes it sound bad i know) in Canada 🇨🇦 was "make yourself breakfast, come back inside for lunch, and be home when the streetlights turn on" starting in 1990, my parent's paid attention of course, but it was very much more laissez-faire than it is now today. My son is now 15, age of the interwebs and games. So he is more interested in that than going and creating trouble, which is a past time i hold onto, to this day. Lol.

I would never trade Europe for the USA. Nah. Your ridiculously expensive health care, no mandatory vacation, education will lead you to debts, mandatory tips up tu 20-25% cause employer doesn´t pay them. minimum wages that can´t guarantee even food in your mounth. etc etc.

Love it here in Prague. Cheers

In Australia we have local, state and federal government. They each have responsibilities. Medicare for example is national.

You have the power to change your country for the better by using your vote, and get rid of your toxic politicians.

I will point out that you're "extremely high minimum wage" that some states have, is $15 per hour(ish) Australia currently has $23.50 minimum wage. With our dollar currently being quite low that'd be about you're "very high" range, but when our dollar goes up to where it often sits, you'd be looking at about $17-18 USD.

Have you realised Europe always wins the positive points when comparing between them and the US?

3:10 if not everyone qualifies for it, then it's not universal. That's literally the meaning of universal.

That school funding is so so wrong!

As a german, i can't imagine how it is to live in the Staates. I would feel permanent fear to get seriously ill or injured and than can't afford the health care and been ruined for the rest of my life. Yes, the taxes are definatly better used here, but here also is a lot of capitalism and it is growing fast, and lobbyism, so it is a lot of room to make it much better too. Our health care system is part for part taken over from private investors. Here the richest ppl also pay percently much less taxes than the low or mid wages. In a few dekades, we will stay there, where the US stands today.

The day you learn to refer to the US as the US and not as America - because America is a continent with many countries and the US is only one of them ... will be the day you understand a lot more about the world.

For example,in Roumania existe obligation school until at 8 level,the bus for going is free,etc.Now,the one of the mathematic problems in the first year of school at 7 years age is this: a+b+c=57 a+b=12 How much is a,b,c?Can you tell the answear?

Americans misunderstood Bush.... he said: "Read my lips, no new TEXAS." So he wasn't lying. 😂😂

I feel that the biggest problem with USA Healthcare is that it is mostly not controlled by the government but by the private sector if I got it correctly. Those prices are crazy high and they can't be this high here in Europe because of the government controlling these prices. If I am mistaken, please correct me but that's what I get when I see USA healthcare. About going out at early age, as some living in the Czech Republic and being a 1998 kid, can't really speak about city life that much from my perspective, but I know that lots of people go out at early age and go to school alone or by public transport even at 9-10 age old if they live close by. I live in something you could compare to suburbs but this concept doesn't really exist here and from and from 6-8 I went to a local school 1 km away from me with my siblings and later alone, after school we all just chilled outside or return home and then went out after telling parents where we go. If I wanted to go with friends I always just went to their homes and rang the bell, if they weren't available, well bad luck and I tried my luck at some other friends.

Visited relatives in Ohio (Medina & Columbus) last week (28th of september to the 9th of oktober). Totally unexpected experience. I was mainly there to see and speak to those relatives and not for the sights (these are far and wide in Ohio, by the way (RnRHoF was awesome, Amish Country was pretty amazing, German Village in Columbus as well)). I understand their love for their country and culture a lot better now!!! And they are not as "tough/woohaaaa!!!!" as most people think, once you get to actually talk to them and get to know them. Yes, I was given the possibility to fire guns (although I was the only one having a go...) but I didn't. Fire a few clips and you are going to have to clean them for longer then the shooting took. Not seen ANY cool classic cars (oh, 1 cool '66 mustang convertible with the chrome side-scoops). People arguing in the streets about women's rights was a spectacle to watch. 3-4 levels of less agressive discussion would have turned into a brawl in Europe. These people were shouting, but not laid a hand on eachother (unthinkable in The Netherlands)

Percentage wise there is a lot less abduction etc than there was in the pre-90s. However the publicization of it happening makes people AWARE of so many more that have happened, means that it feels like the ratio has gone up, rather than having gone down by over 70%

Funny how they say things get muddled up because the states have power, senates and the such that act like separate little countries but then again they are forgetting about Australia...Australia has separate states that were separate colonies that federated to become on nation...they all have a separate governor as a representative of the monarchy, they have separate Premiers (leader of the government), opposition leader and parliament. Each state can have their own different laws that don't align with the national laws.

In Europe there are A LOT of different political systems. The French president can decide whatever whenever he wants and no-one can oppose him, because they never reverted the "Marshal Law" after WW2. Where in the Netherlands 31 parties have to divide 150 seats, the British have only 2. In Belgium there is European, National and regional and a province government plus there a a structure based on the different language areas that have a say. The language area's are quite similar to the regions but not equal. After elections they are notorious for needing years to get to a majority coalition. (I probably should not comment on this this because in NL we are moving in the same direction)

Pagani Huayra R this. As always good stuff but I do prefer your car sound reactions

I've been guilty of the blanket statements, I get you. It's all bollocks. 😁

Justice Antonin Scalia said an incorrect thing during his speech. Italy has 2 parliament Chambers equally powerful and with the same duties. A law to has to pass the voting of both Chambers to become official.

He's speaking _generally_ about the fact families didn't let their kids roam around outside, not case by case.

In Europe the "club fees" are higher but you get more benefits , most of the time

The part were you said that - Although there is free health care in the US, most people don't qualify... So in the UK we have the NHS, which is funded through taxes (corporation tax, salary taxes, etc)... Now I admit the NHS is not always the best, but the advantage the UK NHS has over any other system in the world is, there are no questions, you can be seen and supported when you need it 24/7 (without any bill at the end)... Even to the point that anyone from around the world can use the NHS without paying for it... Which is why we see sometimes people travelling from other countries just to use the NHS... Apart from the NHS, society in the UK overall is straight forward, you go into shops, pick up your items, go to the tills, pay and leave.... The US you personally have to work out the taxes for the items, which to me is beyond stupid.. Again making life a little bit more complicated (if you aren't good at math's as an example)... I think overall the UK's approach to life is about a balance... - Yes you can say the police are not tough enough, but they aren't beating people in the street and causing chaos, like you see in the US... - You can see a doctor, hospital appointment, etc for free in a short time... Without worrying about cost... - The tax system is fair and also the HMRC tax department is fine, as they email you when you are self employed and need to fill your self assessment form (all online).. I could go on, but the bottom line is the US focuses too much on business and profits, and not enough about individuals...

So as you saw each European nation has its own model suited for local needs. As a result we've also been able to try out more different things to see what works or not. Don't get me wrong, sometimes things *definitely* don't work in Europe either, but usually we have a system across the border that does when ours doesn't, and we can hold our government accountable. In the US it's always possible to shift blame and the state next to you have a awfully similar model anyway for most things, so there's very little diversity in government structure. So you don't really see when something doesn't really work, because you don't really have better examples elsewhere that you can see in a lot of cases.

14:50 Parliamentary system VS. Presidential system

It's not Universal Healthcare if most people don't qualify for it. It needs to be one system for everyone from the poorest to the richest, with the rich having the option to opt out and go private if they want, but they still pay their taxes. Australia's Medicare has been falling behind inflation ever since the introduction of the Private Health Rebate in the 90s. Now its virtually impossible to find a GP who Bulk Bills and Hospitals have been on life support for over a decade.

If I'm not mistaken, the Swedes pay a little more tax for it, the state pays for the health costs of the population. A system where everyone in society would benefit.

In Sweden we had a two chamber system but we realized it was making decisions too hard to pass them both, leading to an ineffective progress, so we changed it to a one chamber system about 100 years ago. Simple ;)

There are many intranational differences within European countries too, you know. Many countries have a federal government system and regional differences. In fact I’d say regional differences in Europe are even more extreme than in the US. The important thing here is that in spite of that the system should strive for equity and equality. If only wealthy people can afford university, you deepen those differences even more. Also did you know that compared to many European countries Americans aren’t even paying less tax? You are paying the same but you don’t get anything out from it. I’m Swiss and granted it’s a tiny country but our gouvernment system is actually derived from the US, we have 26 federal states and 4 different languages, there are different taxes in every state. Yet we have affordable health care and free/cheap university. A high tax here is 17%, for the most part it’s lower than that. We also have mandatory military (tiny yes, but compared to the population it still costs a lot too). We just don’t wage wars.

by the amount of cars in my city now, i wouldnt let my kids play outside that much.

You need to work on the volume level of your audio its a bit low, have to turn up the alexa to ,50%

I often get the sense that Americans look at the way things are in their country, and then just _assume_ it is this way because "the people" wanted it. You know the typical "we're so capitalist" and "we prefer individualism" type of answers. But are you though, or have you just been told over and over again that you are, so you belive it? *Because I just refuse to believe that the average American woke up one day and though to himself **_"I think my neighbour should die of ammonia, unless he can afford the meds"._* I think it's more likely that special interest paid your politicians to do it, and then convinced you that it was your idea, because this is the rugged individualist American way.

I don't like the argument of "well it's split up into states, counties, federal etc, so it's too complicated to work". Hell no man! It's exactly the same way in Sweden! We pay regional (state) tax, county tax, and people who make more than a certain threshold also pay "federal" tax. The regions (states) and counties handle health care, school, public transport, infrastructure investments, etc. It's not like Sweden or EU only has one level of government that handles everything and therefore it's smooth, that's not a thing...

Now I can say growing up in the 80's... well we just did whatever we wanted as kids... But then Johny Gosh and Eugene Martin vanished... and all that stopped... I know my son nearly got taken... he was maybe 7 or 8 at the time... and someone approached him... and I'm talking about small super small town rural... midwest... This person approached him but he RAN... he ran straight home... that person had parked near my home... I saw them as I ran to the door to see who was parked there... they had a BIG car... door wide open... he ran they went to the car and tore off... Now this small rural town is just 3 miles from a major interstate... 3 miles... in 3 min he would have been GONE... had I not tutored him on "stranger danger"... scares the hell out of me thinking about it... 3 min. Little more than the blink of an eye. Since we are on so many subjects... I had thought after 9/11 we as a country had gotten stronger... more determined... closer... more caring... I don't know... and then.... we IMO elected a clown into office as a president... I never felt more ashamed to be an American in my life... this man pretty much has destroyed all I once thought was good in the country... we are more divided than ever now... we have slipped in so many places... education, healthcare, poverty, you name it we took a nose dive in it... I feel like we are back in the dark ages... many times I thought.... good god we are headed for another civil war... Or even at times WWIII... I still feel ashamed to admit that I'm an American... and to me... that's sad. I consider probably 20 times a week now... where would / could I go if stupidity takes more of a hold in the country... Europe? Australia? Canada? Dunno... but 20 times or more a week... I think... it's got to be better. Everytime I think we can't sink any lower... we do. The older I get the more concerning it is... will I even be able to do anything? Will I be able to retire... now the government tells me I have to work till I'm 67... I don't know if I can..... I'll be honest... I don't know.

American judiciary is not independent, sadly it's owned by big business which is why the little guy always gets screwed by the courts

My first time in USA was directly after high school in 1992 and I went to Miami to see where Miami Vice is happening ;) Well ... in the end I was more than lucky to survive it, witnessed 2 shootings and for the first time saw a spot where someone obviously has bled to death a few hours ago. Maybe the bus drivers saved us with their "Try not to get killed" every time we exited the bus. My second time- 2 years later- was Chicago, Philly and Detroit ... I only went there for business afterwards and avoid it for holidays. This place is frikkin dangerous!

What most US citizens do not fully understand is that what we pay more in taxes we get back as benefits in society. What you pay in tuition fees for education, health insurance etc is MUCH more than we pay in taxes for the same things. Last time I checked it cost $107,000 a year at Harvard Law School. Times 4 years, that means you start your working life with a debt of $428,000. And I haven't even included what college costs before you even get there! For that amount you can buy a house here in Norway. Besides, we don't pay that much more tax than you do anyway. What they say in this video about all citizens being heavily taxed is not true. We have a progressive system where the more you earn, the higher percentage you pay. In addition, we only tax 10.5 months a year. AND we have lots of different deductions that come on top of that. I myself paid 22.4% tax last year. Because of that, I don't have to worry about the children's kindergarten and pre-school, education up to and including university, or hospital and medical expenses at all. AND, and this is the good one, we don't spend $842 billion on our military, leaving nothing left for the citizens and society. Another thing US citizens don't seem to understand is how an insurance company works. The most common objection to universal health care is that "I don't want to pay for someone else's health care". Where do these people think the money that is paid out for their neighbour's cancer treatment comes from? From all the others who pay into their insanely expensive insurances who do not need to use them because they are not sick. Taxes work in exactly the same way, only that there are no greedy owners, bosses and shareholders who are supposed to have profit and dividends, sitting at the top. Which of course makes things here, (and basically everywhere outside the US) MUCH cheaper. In addition, our government negotiates with the pharmaceutical industry and all other suppliers to our healthcare system on behalf of an entire country. That's bargaining power! Paying $100 more in taxes each month is cheaper than paying $400 per month for insurance. It's simple math.

In Belgium, we also tend to not let our kids go out when they are young. It wasn't like that before but it changed because of Marc Dutroux. After that, everyboy was scared for their children and 20 years later, we are still scared.

you should watch mickael moore's movie where to invade next (trying to invade europe)

France elects its president seperately from its parliament - thus you can end up with a president and a prime minister who pretty much pull the country in different directions. (Its comparitively unusual to have the country shift dramatically in its mainstream politics in such a short space of time though.) Plus pretty much every democratic country has an independent judiciary - if anything its the US which is oddly political in parties appointing extremely partisan judges instead of other judges trying to appoint other judges in a vaguely balanced fashion.

germany is a federal republic. the three powers are seperated and independent. the legistative , executive and judicative (law making, law enforcing, independent justice system). there are also two bodies, the parlament (Bundestag) and a second chamber (Bundesrat). Parlament consists of people voted into it, second chamber are representives of the german states (represented by members of the governing party/parties of those states). the chancelor is not voted directly, first tap on that job usually goes to the party that got the majority of votes in election. and the chancelor is not head of the state, he is head of the government. head of the state is the Bundespräsident (federal president), not voted directly but by the Bundesversammlung (all members of parlament and and equal number to that consisting of members from parlaments of all federal states) of cause that's a rather simplyfied description. come on, it's germany, of course it ain't that simple when looking closer 🙂 in some parts, that probably doesn't sound all to different to the US, while others greatly differ (and will even more if looking how is voted, who can vote, how many hurdles to take/or not take before able to vote, and a whole lot more) point is, that's also a whole lot different to France, Italy, Denmark, Poland, Romania, Croatia, etc, pp. A lot will be simular, but a lot will also differ. There is no better or worse, those structures where created by the culture and history of each country in a different way. the political structure of germany is heavyly influenced by it's unique historcal experiences and also a manifestation of some degree of save guards that aim to avoid another imploding democracy like in the Weimar days, when internal enemies of democracy where able to take it over (i.e. something like "Sperrminorität", the fact that a party must at least reach 5% to get into federal parlament, is partly to avoid unstability over a too fragmented parlament which was one of the many things leading to Weimars fall - sure not the only, sure not the most important, but a part). That's kind of what makes europe thrilling, it's nerve wrecking to watch how all those different structures still manage to get along, at least to some degree till now. Let's wait and see ...

haha.. no, Europe don´t tax biloneers, that is something that is often claimed, its just not true.: Its not about taxing them more or less, they are not taxed what so ever. France did that for a while in the 70s. turned out to not be be briliant. 4:45 that grapth looks like makebelive. Also, europe have no uniform tax system. In Sweden for example you can never pay less than about 32% tax (for full time worker). This is not unversiaal in europe. but most western european countries have a very low base deduct. You can basicly not earn under the base deduct in any western european nation. In USA botom 20% earner can live totally under the base deduct in the federal tax system and also plenty of states. While Sweden tax both high and low earners more than USA, they diffrance between them are actually smaller in Sweden (also Denmark, Norway and Finland is a bit different). Bilioneers are not taxed what so ever. There is no capital tax, just a capital gain tax, and generally Bilioners fund it anyway, so they don´t even pay that. Exactly how they got the number to 10% for western europe. Not chance that its true. I checked tax rate for a dussin european countries, and just one country have a median tax rate that low (Poland). In some Baltic state it can get pretty low as well, but not that low. About the Pisa test, i know only about Sweden. But sweden excluded something like 25 % of the student from the test. And there are a rule that you can exclude like special ed student and student with other difficulties, like immigrant student. Where sweden sort of cheated was to exclude children with "imigrant baground", that is when one of the parrent was immigrant Despite popular belfie, sweden don´t have many immigrant children. Most children that speak poor swedesh are children of immigrants, not imigrants them self, yes, they are actually born here. And they speak really poor Swedish, and most of them speech little or no English. The excuse is that they talks so poor Swedish.. the issue is.. that was what the school system supose to do. On top of that, when there is classes with over 50% children of immigrants, they just cut the whole class. This have a quite significant impact becasue the inborn Swedish student that would preform poorly, have a high ods of going in those classes. The main reason schools is so expensive in the US is that teacher in the US earn waaay more than in Europe. Often is this pared with false claim that teachers earn less than in europe, by having the pay as a percentage of the mean pay. This is very dishonest because this is not what effect the budget. There is one part that they totally missing here. In Europe we have a general selection for student to education. This is a system where students fight for the best education by academic merit. There is a set amount of spots on each education, and who ever have the best grades get it (or standardized test score) Scalia is dead wrong. Most nation in Europe are republics. While some, like Germany and Italy is sort of kind of republic on paper. A lot of nations are true republics, like Irland, France, Finland, Baltic states (all 3), Poland, Austria, Portugal, Iceland and quite a few more (when it come to southern eastern europe i´m not sure what countries are true Republics and symbolic republics) There are only 7 major non republic countries in Europe. (Sweden, Norway, Denmark. Belgium, Netherlands, UK and Spain). Worth saying that Germany does have a presidential election while the chanseler is Chanseler by the parliament. So the Chanseler is simular to USA leader of the houses. (both of them) and they have a seperatly elected president. The thing is, the power is reversed. The chanseler have similar power to the President in the US, and the president have simular power to the leader of the houses.