George Hahn

After roaming the earth for 35 years, my conclusion is the U.S.

is the best place to make money, and Europe is the best place to spend it.

Though Europe does have dynamic countries that the shitposting narrative regarding structural decline ignores—

living in the UK for the past four years and traveling around the continent, I've observed two versions of Europe, a stagnant welfare state limping toward insolvency, exaggerated but true in places, and a dynamic fusion of capitalism, full-body contact violence in the market that unleashes innovation and opportunity, with a meaningful social safety net, real but overlooked by Americans."

Let's discard the fiction and talk about the Europe I've encountered in real life.

Last week, Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire.

His wealth is greater than the combined fortunes of the next three men on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Jeff Bezos.

Of the 500 people on the list, 180 are Americans or reside in the U.S.

Their combined wealth is equivalent to that of the bottom 54% of U.S.

households.

In American politics, the interests of the few are framed in opposition to the interests of the many.

We can have billionaires, we're told, or we can have universal healthcare, but we can't have both.

That's a false choice.

Sweden, among other countries, settles the argument.

Billionaires and universal healthcare can coexist.

It's not capitalism versus socialism.

Capitalism actually works better when built on a foundation of empathy and equity.

Sweden is a contradiction, an F1 engine running inside a Volvo station wagon.

On the one hand, Senator Bernie Sanders praises its universal health care system, 11% of GDP spent on health care, life expectancy of 82.7 years, and outcomes on par with or better than those of other advanced economies.

On the other hand, while the EU stagnates, Sweden is projecting 2% GDP growth.