Gato, with all respect, I am certainly not mistaking cages for freedom.
In Western Europe, you’re free to benefit from social policies, and you’re free not to use them. You’re not obliged to send your children to public schools. You can send them anywhere you want, INSEAD, Oxford, MIT, Northwestern, La Sorbonne, wherever. Or, for younger ones, to my old private east coast high school (current annual tuition $35,000).
You don’t have to use the health services that are at your disposal. You can travel the world for the service you want. Just as Americans sometimes fly to Europe for specialized treatments.
These social institutions aren’t baubles or bribes, anymore than Medicare is one. They are understood social services.
Similarly, Western Europe has remarkable social mobility. Quality of life and standards of living in the original core EU countries have been exceptionally high for decades. And any EU citizen is free to move to any of the 25+ EU countries, find a better job, start a business, etc. And millions do move, every year. They can even set up in Switzerland and Norway, which are not a member countries.
On the other hand, I agree one could make a strong baubles + suppression argument for places like the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, which are absolute totalitarian monarchies (ironically, staunchly supported by the USA). Or many of the dozens of countries around the world that are perennially under military dictatorship.
Gato, with all respect, I am certainly not mistaking cages for freedom.
In Western Europe, you’re free to benefit from social policies, and you’re free not to use them. You’re not obliged to send your children to public schools. You can send them anywhere you want, INSEAD, Oxford, MIT, Northwestern, La Sorbonne, wherever. Or, for younger ones, to my old private east coast high school (current annual tuition $35,000).
You don’t have to use the health services that are at your disposal. You can travel the world for the service you want. Just as Americans sometimes fly to Europe for specialized treatments.
These social institutions aren’t baubles or bribes, anymore than Medicare is one. They are understood social services.
Similarly, Western Europe has remarkable social mobility. Quality of life and standards of living in the original core EU countries have been exceptionally high for decades. And any EU citizen is free to move to any of the 25+ EU countries, find a better job, start a business, etc. And millions do move, every year. They can even set up in Switzerland and Norway, which are not a member countries.
On the other hand, I agree one could make a strong baubles + suppression argument for places like the Emirates or Saudi Arabia, which are absolute totalitarian monarchies (ironically, staunchly supported by the USA). Or many of the dozens of countries around the world that are perennially under military dictatorship.