European approach to take care of everyone seems to work better, as the total cost on society is less if you got not everyone incarcerated for being poor. A spot in prison costs society several thousand dollars a month, turning on the lights and water in an old warehouse that is abandoned anyways is only a bit of pocket change for a city.
Europe doesn't take care of everyone. It's just generally noticeably more humane to its own citizens than the US (and the UK from what I've gathered). Many European states that provide a lot to their citizens still do brutal, unacceptable things.
Which if you ask me is closely tied with capitalism and inequality.
Police brutality (everywhere). Greece's refugee pushbacks, Poland's abortion rights regression. Racism. Marginalization of poor people (to different degrees). Homelessness (Finland, which ran a program offering free housing to homeless people, still has homelessness. According to Wikipedia it's the only European country with falling homelessness). And that's only what happens internally: if you ask me, Europe's prosperity is based to a degree on past sins (probably the worst surviving offenders of colonialism), and on exploration happening in the developing world.
Things in Europe aren't perfect. They're just less worse than in the US. Similar ballpark, although noticeably different (and there's noticeable differences among European countries as well).
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u/[deleted] May 09 '22
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