If you are challenging my view as being selective I think that could be fair (if provided some statistics to combat my finger in the air analysis). I live in the UK which (was) one of the more developed members of the EU, so that probably does bias my view, and I have not visited the poorest members of the EU.

Even with this caveat, there is a difference in principle that I believe distinguishes the way of life for the less wealthy in the US compared to most of the EU. A big part of US culture seems to be something along the lines of "everyone for themselves", and "paying your own way", which neglects those not blessed with opportunity and seems to encourages larger wealth disparity. I do not believe most of the governments of the EU share this principle, but I welcome counter examples. That said, it's also not black and white: even the US borrows socialist tools to equalise such disparities where it's been proven to work best, such as public schools and libraries.

I challenge the broad generalizations and simplifications you are employing to compare highly complex and diverse populations and cultures to advance your preconceived conclusions.

Because I too can reduce this comparison to a couple of well picked numbers like say per capita GDP or number of companies in top 100 by market cap and conclude that it is EU who should borrow capitalist programs from the US, not the other way around.

But I won’t…

I was accepting to your criticism and then exploring it from a different angle. Your comment is needlessly hostile, it's not going to make me more receptive to your opinion.

Perhaps write from a place with less "preconceived conclusions" about the other commenters motives next time.

Public schools and libraries are socialistic tools now? They were a thing before Marx has even dreamt about socialism. Since you are from one of more developed ex EU member state, you could surely afford to travel to an ex communist EU member state to see for yourself (go outside of capitals) what poverty in EU looks like.

This is so far away from my original argument of "not wealthy" I don't see the point in discussing with you. What are you trying to prove? that poor people exist in the EU? of course they do.

>>Even with this caveat, there is a difference in principle that I believe distinguishes the way of life for the less wealthy in the US compared to most of the EU.

I don't think you have seen how poor people live on either side of the Atlantic and yet you believe being poor in EU is inherently better than in the USA. What is your source of information?

I am not talking about poverty