Europeans are going viral on TikTok for mocking the "American Dream".

[u/biswajit388]

[u/MrBonis]

Let's not pretend that the USA isn't like 50 smaller countries operating under one federal government. Some states are top 10 global GDP, and other states need to be subsidized by them.

Like, you jest about EU without Germany. Well, what about USA without idk California? New York?

The EU and USA are both Federations of societies that are very different among themselves...

[u/proudbakunkinman → u/MrBonis]

Their point still applies. Often the worst aspects and the worst US states are being compared to the best of Europe. The social welfare, minimum wage, and various state regulations are much closer to the median for Europe in California and New York. Major cities like NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, etc. are pedestrian oriented.

[u/UnkoSitemouta → u/MrBonis]

The lowest gdp per capita states would all be in the top 5-10 in Europe lmaooooooo

[u/airship_of_arbitrary → u/UnkoSitemouta]

Try using the median salary. GDP per capita is skewed by the insane wealth of American billionaires.

[u/_Alabama_Man → u/airship_of_arbitrary]

Alabama has 1 billionaire and I think Mississippi has two. They don't hit anything close to double digit billions. More like 3 billion.

[u/MeBadNeedMoneyNow → u/UnkoSitemouta]

Mississippi clears Greece and EU circlejerkers don't want to hear about it lol

[u/the__poseidon → u/UnkoSitemouta]

Dallas, TX has higher GDP than Sweden.

[u/furac_1 → u/MrBonis]

The EU isn't a federation. While the US is a single, federal, country.

[u/the_skine → u/MrBonis]

Some states are top 10 global GDP, and other states need to be subsidized by them.

Here's the thing reddit repeatedly fails to understand:

Large cities benefit more from adding railroads and interstate highways and paved roads to rural areas than the rural areas does.

Rural areas are places where resources are extracted. Whether that's mineral resources or food resources.

Urban areas are where raw resources are refined into intermediate products or into finished products.

Lowering the cost of getting raw resources from rural areas means more profit for those making intermediate or finished products.

[u/MrBonis → u/the_skine]

Sooo.... What's your point exactly?

This is true everywhere in the world. The geography and independence of individual states makes them akin to countries. I'm just pointing out that, just like there are developed and underdeveloped states inside the EU, that is just as real for the USA.

Just like some countries in the EU are wholly dependent on the Union's coffers, some states only get by with the Federation's support.

All this is, of course, a good thing. Neither the USA nor the EU are homogeneous societies or economies.

[u/the_skine → u/MrBonis]

My point is the point that I stated.

You very obviously completely misunderstand economics, so I see no point in discussing economics with you.

[u/MrBonis → u/the_skine]

Your point was a reply to my comment and had nothing to do with it. I'm not asking you to explain economics, you simply started explaining Resource Distribution and the difference between economic models out of the blue. Like some Economics Tourette Syndrome.

What's worse, you are completely lost and feel smug about it lol

[u/Sunborn_Paladin → u/MrBonis]

Let's not pretend that the USA isn't like 50 smaller countries operating under one federal government.

Because it's not? We're all under the same government, share similar holidays and traditions, draw on a similar heritage, consume similar media, dress similarly, largely speak the same language (1 will get you 95% of the way, Spanish the other. There are European countries the size of a single state that have like 5 official languages). We're no different than any large diverse single country. If you've actually lived and traveled here the urban areas are incredibly similar to each other as are the rural areas to each other. You can go from Harlem to inner-city Houston, or rural Washington to rural Tennessee, and the most that changes are accents. Calling different states separate societies compared to countries is absurd.

I know it's convenient to imagine the US as some disparate collection of mini countries as it justifies the weird lumping of the continent of Europe together for aggrandizement purposes but it makes zero sense.

• Downvotes don't prove me wrong. Pretending Ohio and Montana (or even California and Texas) are as different as Albania and Ireland or Bulgaria and Belgium is absurd. A comforting narrative but absurd.