> In Europe after you get fired, you can opt to just draw 50% of your old salary indefinitely?

No, definitely not in "Europe" in general (well, according to sweaty you can in some parts of Europe, although I have my doubts).

That's certainly not true in all European countries. In Switzerland, for example, you get 70% (80 for very low salaries) of your old salary for 1.5 years (2 years if you're over 50). After that, if you still don't have a job, you're on your own (if you're broke, you can apply for social welfare).

>Who's paying it?

Very rich people and large companies, generally.

Lmao, americans shocked when they realized that proper social welfare is a thing always baffles me. To reply to you genuine question : 1. Yes it is a thing. 2. Everybody is paying for it through taxes.

50% of yoursalary is not a simple safety net and is extremely excessive for well-paid software engineers of the sort being laid off at e.g. Twitter.

I support a modest minimum income provided by the government, but 50% of salary indefinitely is insane, it only makes sense if everyone is low paid.

Properly taxed wealthy people and corporations.

So in exchange for software engineering salaries that are 8-10 thousand american dollars lower per month at least. you get a fraction of a much lower salary in unemployment benefits?

In what universe would that be "properly taxed"? You're saying I can work for 1 year in a $200K/year job and then draw $100k x 30 years = $3,000,000 of value from that one year of work? And it would be fair and just to tax "wealthy people" on my behalf for that?

I still feel like I must be misinterpreting something here, because I can't imagine even the leftiest of leftists thinking this sounds fair. That's basically just UBI except the rate is set for each individual based on whatever the high-water mark of their lifetime earnings were at any point?

"Europe" isn't a unified system. Those benefits definitely don't exist in the UK, and I'd still consider our labour laws to be well-balanced and reasonably fair to both employees and employers.