me_irl

European countries are installing austerity policies left and right, and have been since the 90s. They're absolutely barrelling towards the American model in gutting their welfare states. The underlying forces that move capitalism in the direction of deep inequality[1] are endemic to capitalism itself, and are also present in whatever flavor of capitalism you subscribe to.

[1] In short, an outsize influence of the owning class through threats of capital flight, direct lobbying, and owning the media that informs the opinions of the electorate, combined with their ability to expand this influence. This is measurable. There's a 2014 study which shows that the positions of US politicians are pretty much exactly those of economic elites, and coincide with the wishes of the middle and working class only ever by accident (when it coincides with the wants of the economic elites, pretty much). Similar studies exist (with the same result, to be clear) for pretty much every western european country, in particular Denmark, the Netherlands, and Germany (but also others). Tfw your "short footnote" is longer than the comment itself. I feel like a regular David Foster Wallace.

What you mean is social democracy, or could also be called Keynesian economic policy. The US had it too post-WW2, there's nothing European about it. Some European countries still have remnants, but by and large we have been moving away from it too :(

I'm not sure I would agree that Democrats care about worker benefits, tbh.

Mmmm yummm delicious capitalist realism.