The US is far less restricted than europe for freedom of speech, the major principle that matters when you're talking about information technology.

In the case of search engine balkanisation (I'd be in favour of it), I'd think that eurosearch would, on average, be more censorious than amerifind.

Aside from Holocaust denial, hate speech and libel how does the US differ from "Europe" in terms of free speech?

"Hate speech" is such a glaring flaw in "freedom of speech (EU version)" that it invalidates the concept. These laws differ by country, which makes it a nightmare to follow. Some of them have historically been quite silly. There was a case in 2008, where a protestor was fined because he wrote something along the lines of "get lost, jerk" on a sign directed at the president. This eventually got overruled, but it should never have been a case at all. Then there are also the obvious cases such as Count Dancula or whatever he's called.

The US has what we might call "better" libel and slander laws than some actors in the EU and with the UK being a popular example of the most ridiculously bad laws historically.

>> Aside from [...] libel

I didn't see your edit, sorry.

Has Europe’s pro-union climate led to more competitive software companies, or better pay and benefits for its software engineers?

Every European engineer I talk to seems either amazed or resentful about American software engineers’ salaries and benefits. How have the unions helped you in this regard? How have they helped your tech companies be more competitive in the global economy?

> Has Europe’s pro-union climate led to more competitive software companies, or better pay and benefits for its software engineers?

E.g. we get health insurance even if we quit or switch jobs.

The thing about European software companies tho is that they are hardly unionized at all.

>Every European engineer I talk to seems either amazed or resentful about American software engineers’ salaries and benefits.

I am not, to be honest. Sure, at a first glance it might seem the US devs make tons of money. But once you account for cost of living (like the astronomical rents in every major tech hub city) things do not look that rosy anymore. I know US people who make twice or trice what I make, and yet they live in dumps that you can hardly call apartment and they say they cannot afford any better. That, combined with the at-will nature of US employment, really doesn't strike me as desirable.

I like living in a country where I have a pretty awesome standard of living, a nice apartment that I don't have to share (unless I want to) and a safety net that is (at least for now) able to catch me should I ever struggle or become sick, so I won't go homeless.

Those things are largely thanks to work the unions did in the past and keep doing.

Certainly, the salaries are a bit of an illusion when you take the insane housing costs of the Bay Area into account.

If breaking up the American tech companies helped disperse jobs outside of Silicon Valley, that would be a good thing.

Europe is really diverse in wealth and business climate. The wealth gap between different European nations is so large that the US probably seems like the pinnacle of equality. It's hard to talk about Europe in general in this sense. I've worked as a developer, where I made less than $600-800 a month. Although I was underpaid, but it probably wouldn't have been possible to make double that in my country. I think you might want to dial your question in slightly more than "Europe", perhaps "Western Europe".