I'll pass on living there, but would love to visit.
OK, the article is bullshit.
1) If your clients are union, they damn well better have more than SS, otherwise your union is screwing them.
2) There are PLENTY of people in Europe who keep on coming up a couple hundred short each month. It's not like some utopia where you don't have to worry about money anymore.
3) That $2000 out of pocket for health care, does it matter if they just take $2000 or more out in taxes and tell you your health care is free?
4) Unemployment is lower in Europe? Really? Because up until this year, the OECD seemed to have it pegged lower for the same accounting method. Now we are at about parity with the EU with certain member nations still notably exceeding us.
5) WTF do cities and violets have to do with each other. YEah, Zrich is nice. Why? Because Switzerland is basically organized around the notion of "cash or GTFO". Look at their immigration policy, and Germany's too for that fact. And as for the violets... Try London on a nice hot day. Inhale deeply. Or maybe they would like to wander to the edges of Paris and see how nice the neighborhood is compared with the nicely maintained central areas. But no, the problem is uniquely American.
6) Sweden France and Germany don't still have industry because of unions. They have industry because of government protectionism to ensure it still had industry despite a changing economic climate. I'll agree Europe does a better job at this, but it has little to do with high wages. It's more of a hidden tax on the cost of certain goods to ensure that, should relations with those people over there go south, we can still get by with the industry at home. The US hasn't learned nearly as well what the value vs. cost of that is because we haven't been subjected to hundreds of years of turf wars in our back yard. But that's not the author's point.
7) You want to know why unions are dead here? Not because they were broken, but because they didn't do anything useful anymore. Where I work, we are something like 90% union. They cut shitty deals all the time, and the number one priority is ensuring that dues based on salary percentage is as high as possible. Not that people stay employed, not that jobs are created, not that competent people get rewarded, or at least not punished for doing their job. Just that the union coffers get the most money shoved in them.
The article probably has some arguments of merit in them on a philosophical level, but their arguments to back it up are mostly spin and bullshit.
Cuba offers a better life than even Europe.
Gramps
I haven't spent that much time in Old Europe, but I think I have seen enough to see that it is a mixed blessing to live there.
If you fall on the sidewalk and break a bone, you get prompt competent medical care without getting a bill. But it is hard to get stuff done and the taxes are more than Americans would be comfortable with.
I will take the good ole US of A thanks very much.