Making Money in the USA vs. Making Money in Europe

0:00 One of my favorite things about the

0:02 world that we live in and about humans

0:04 as a species is that we are insanely

0:07 adaptable and that we figured out many

0:09 different ways to live.

0:11 This is what I've loved so much about travel and of

0:14 living in different countries throughout

0:16 my life.

0:17 It's the fact that you get very

0:18 different answers to the same basic

0:21 human questions of how to live depending

0:24 on where you are.

0:25 roughly one-third of your life will be

0:27 spent working when all is said and done.

0:29 And so what is that one/ird of your life

0:31 going to look like?

0:32 What is your relationship going to be to that work?

0:34 Depending on what society you've grown

0:35 up in, you probably have a different

0:37 answer to that question.

0:38 I am a product

0:39 of the United States.

0:40 I was born there.

0:41 I grew up there.

0:42 And I'm still coming to

0:44 terms with just how much that country

0:46 has impacted me and how I see the world.

0:51 years ago.

0:52 I left the United States for

0:54 many reasons, but one of them being that

0:55 I felt that the relationship to work and

0:58 and just the lifestyle felt unhealthy,

1:00 imbalanced, unhealthy and imbalanced.

1:03 All of the hustling all the time is just

1:05 suffocating and it's exhausting.

1:07 Always keeping up with the Joneses.

1:08 And this work hard, play hard attitude is one of

1:11 the things that I think contributes to

1:13 the excesses that you see in American

1:15 society.

1:15 And if you don't figure it out,

1:16 if you don't play the game, you get left

1:18 behind.

1:19 So that's where I grew up.

1:21 And then I left and I've spent the

1:23 majority of the last decade living in

1:25 Europe and traveling like a pingpong

1:27 ball around this continent.

1:29 And when I left, I could only see the bad in the US

1:32 and the good in Europe.

1:33 There's less of that rising grind mentality where you

1:36 take work wherever you go.

1:39 But over time, I realized a few

1:42 things.

1:43 Whether I like it or not, the US

1:44 has left a lasting mark on me.

1:47 And not all of it is bad.

1:48 And I feel like some

1:49 of the American mentality has been hard

1:52 encoded into me.

1:53 And I fundamentally see

1:55 some things differently than a lot of

1:57 Europeans my age.

1:59 There are some things

2:00 that you will see in Europe that you

2:02 will never see in the United States and

2:04 vice versa.

2:05 For example, when I was

2:06 living in Paris, I had a doorman in my

2:08 building.

2:09 He was a pretty young guy,

2:10 like in his 30s.

2:11 He was working there

2:12 for, I don't know, 4 or 5 months and

2:14 then disappeared.

2:15 I later discovered that I guess he had some kind of medical

2:18 issue or problem with his elbows.

2:20 He got a slip from the doctor saying that he

2:22 had this issue.

2:23 He just stopped showing

2:24 up for an entire year before returning

2:25 and for that entire year he was paid.

2:27 That kind of thing just does not happen

2:29 in the US.

2:30 In the US it's very common to

2:32 be reachable and available on work

2:34 rellated matters pretty much any time of

2:36 day.

2:36 Whereas in Europe there are

2:37 actually laws in place that make it so

2:40 that you do not have to answer

2:42 management outside of work hours.

2:44 And yet, for all of the wonderful things

2:46 that make Europe such an amazing place

2:47 to live, there are trade-offs.

2:49 And so, in this video, I'm going to explore how

2:50 we're different and [Applause]

3:01 why.

3:02 Okay, two things I have to clear

3:04 up.

3:04 I know how annoying it is for

3:06 Canadians and Latin Americans to hear me

3:08 refer to the United States as America.

3:11 Okay, trust me, I know because my

3:13 family's from Argentina.

3:14 I just say America out of simplicity.

3:16 I've tried a different approach in the past using the

3:19 word Eonian or Eonia, but I just don't

3:22 see how that's ever going to become a

3:23 thing.

3:23 That is so fetch.

3:25 Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen.

3:28 It's not going to happen.

3:29 The other thing is that

3:30 I'm highly aware that Europeans don't

3:33 like it at all when I put them all in

3:34 one bucket.

3:35 And this is the beauty of

3:36 Europe, right?

3:37 It's such a diverse

3:38 continent with so many different

3:40 cultures and histories and governments.

3:42 I get it.

3:42 You're French or you're

3:44 Portuguese or you're Danish or you're

3:46 Polish first.

3:48 And if you even feel

3:49 European, that comes second.

3:51 The thing is, I'm going to talk

3:52 about how systems shape us.

3:54 You know, the big trends.

3:55 There are a variety of

3:56 systems that are knitting it together

3:58 and intentionally so, right?

3:59 This was done by design.

4:00 You have the Euro zone,

4:01 you have the Shenen zone, you have the

4:04 EA, EFTA.

4:06 And a lot of this has been

4:07 done so that Europeans can all be a

4:10 little bit more on the same page and

4:11 stop killing each other.

4:12 And in the end,

4:12 if you look specifically at every single

4:14 one of these agreements, somebody's

4:15 always left out.

4:16 But on the whole,

4:17 you've got a group of countries that are

4:19 at least in theory trying to work

4:21 together as a team.

4:22 And there's another reason for this.

4:23 Even though the US has

4:24 pulled ahead in recent years, about 10

4:27 years ago, the GDP or gross domestic

4:29 product, which is a common economic

4:31 metric, was roughly the same between the

4:33 US and the EU.

4:34 And so that makes

4:35 comparisons easier.

4:40 So let me begin by saying that

4:41 when I first moved over to Europe, it

4:43 felt like such a relief to come over

4:46 here and to discover a whole variety of

4:48 societies that are organized in

4:50 different ways.

4:50 But collectively, education is way more affordable and

4:54 healthcare is way more affordable and

4:55 doesn't run the risk of bankrupting you

4:57 and there's better paid sick leave and

4:59 there's paid maternity and paternity

5:01 leave.

5:01 Like what is not to like?

5:03 Sure.

5:03 Okay.

5:03 So GDP is growing faster in the US

5:07 and there's lower unemployment.

5:08 So what what happened to enjoying life, right?

5:11 Yeah.

5:12 Okay.

5:12 So there's lots of work in

5:13 the US and the salaries are higher, but

5:16 more is asked of you and you can be

5:18 fired at any time almost.

5:20 And also cost of living is higher and you got to not

5:22 forget that.

5:22 And especially if you want

5:23 to eat healthy, right?

5:24 You know, like what's the point of making a lot of

5:26 money if you're stressed all the time.

5:28 Here I was, this American dude who just

5:30 arrived on the continent and people my

5:33 age were getting up to two years of

5:35 unemployment benefits which covered like

5:37 60 or 70% of their former salary.

5:40 These are unheard of amounts in the United

5:43 States.

5:43 It just sounded insane to me.

5:45 Such a generous system.

5:46 And then you combine that with these beautiful

5:51 walkable cities and excellent public

5:54 transit and all the other awesome stuff

5:56 that comes with being in Europe.

5:57 It just kind of sounded too good to be true.

6:00 I'm anticipating some people saying that a

6:02 lot of what I'm saying doesn't apply as

6:03 much to Eastern Europe as the rest of

6:05 Europe, which fine, fair enough.

6:07 But even in countries like Poland, there's

6:10 more affordable education and social

6:12 services than in the United States.

6:14 So even there, I think a lot of what I'm

6:17 saying here applies.

6:18 You know, I'm in

6:19 Austria right now in Saltsburg, but it

6:21 doesn't matter where you are, you know,

6:22 whether you're in Bucharest or Madrid or

6:25 Ljubljana.

6:26 Like, so much cool oldw world

6:28 charm.

6:29 I guess a part of me did sort of

6:30 resent the Protestant workaholic thing

6:35 going on in the US.

6:36 And I'm going to

6:36 come back to this point, but the thing

6:37 is I actually really do like working.

6:40 I really love what I do.

6:41 And I feel like

6:42 in Europe often times I feel like I'm

6:44 coming up against a headwind.

6:46 And little by little, I came to realize that for

6:48 all the amazing things that this

6:49 continent has to offer, there are

6:51 trade-offs.

6:52 There are sacrifices that

6:53 are being made, you you can't have

6:54 everything.

6:55 Nobody has it all.

6:56 Let's talk about efficiency.

7:00 You see, I didn't realize

7:02 this at first, but a lot of Europe has a

7:07 crippling Kafka-esque level problem, and

7:10 it's called bureaucracy.

7:13 There has been a lot of noise and

7:14 complaining about bureaucracy in the

7:16 United States recently with Elon Musk

7:18 and the Trump administration, but it is

7:21 nothing compared to Europe.

7:24 And I can't generalize here.

7:25 This isn't the case for

7:26 all European countries, but a lot of

7:28 them have it really bad.

7:30 It is just on a

7:31 whole other level.

7:32 In the Nordic countries, they've got their systems

7:35 more in place.

7:36 Things are more digitized.

7:37 Things are more efficient.

7:38 So, your mileage may vary with regards

7:40 to this point on bureaucracy.

7:42 But if you're not dealing with bureaucracy,

7:43 then you're definitely dealing with

7:45 regulations.

7:45 And often times you have to

7:47 like mail in your paperwork instead of

7:50 digitally submit it and do all these

7:52 kinds of like ass backwards things.

7:55 Okay, before I go any further, I want to

7:57 speak briefly about BetterHelp, whose

7:59 support in this paid partnership makes

8:01 all of the research and writing and

8:03 shooting and editing of these videos

8:04 possible.

8:05 I think there is a huge amount

8:06 of anxiety that comes with change.

8:08 I mean, I have felt that myself and it's

8:10 one of the reasons why I'm making this

8:12 video series and especially in a time

8:13 where there is so much change happening

8:15 in politics and around the world.

8:17 I have found that therapy is a really powerful

8:19 tool in a world that moves this fast.

8:21 I speak to my therapist every week and

8:23 that has allowed me to better navigate

8:25 and adjust to life out here in the

8:28 countryside.

8:28 It also helped me when I

8:30 moved to Europe from the United States

8:32 which was a big shift, a big transition.

8:35 BetterHelp has a large network of

8:37 credentialed therapists that can help

8:39 you navigate and make sense of what

8:41 you're feeling, especially if you're

8:42 feeling anxious.

8:43 Also, it's designed to

8:44 be flexible and adapt to your schedule.

8:46 And another big plus is that you can try

8:48 different therapists out and change for

8:50 free if you're not clicking with who

8:51 you're talking to.

8:52 And I also like that

8:52 you can communicate to your therapist

8:54 however you prefer, whether that's via

8:56 text, call, or video call.

8:58 It's easy to sign up and give it a shot for yourself.

9:00 You can just go to the link in the

9:02 description or go to

9:04 betterhelp.com/nathaniel Drew.

9:05 Clicking that link actually supports this

9:07 channel, but it also gives you 10% off

9:08 your first month when signing up.

9:10 Okay, let's dive back in.

9:13 I really feel like I

9:14 did not realize just how good I had it

9:17 with regards to convenience and

9:19 efficiency while I was living in the US.

9:21 It's just so straightforward.

9:22 opening a bank account, getting your driver's

9:24 license, starting a new business because

9:26 everybody's taking vacations on in

9:29 August or different parts of the year.

9:32 There are times of the year that it's

9:34 bad to start stuff, so you have to sort

9:36 of plan your year around that.

9:37 That was never the case in the US.

9:39 Things are always available.

9:40 Nathan from the future

9:41 here.

9:42 Uh, I spent a lot of time writing

9:44 and shooting and editing this video in

9:46 February and March.

9:46 And now we're in

9:47 April and an unbelievable amount of new

9:50 developments have been taking place.

9:52 Trump with his tariff policy and the

9:54 mass uncertainty economically speaking

9:57 around the world is calling into

9:58 question some of the things that I said

10:00 in this video.

10:01 Things that were true for

10:02 the entirety of my life until I guess

10:05 the last month or two.

10:06 I don't know where all this is taking us, right?

10:09 We're all figuring this out in real

10:10 time.

10:10 I just want to acknowledge this

10:12 just so it doesn't seem like I'm not

10:14 addressing everything that's happening

10:15 in the world right now.

10:16 As this series progresses, I want to move more and more

10:18 towards current events and then looking

10:20 towards the future.

10:21 So definitely more to come.

10:23 Just wanted to mention that.

10:24 All right, let's dive back in.

10:25 It's hard to beat in terms of efficiency one main

10:28 language being spoken across the whole

10:30 country.

10:33 Now, I moved to Europe because I love

10:36 the multilingual, multicultural aspect.

10:39 I really appreciate that.

10:41 School.

10:43 That's one of the biggest, one of my

10:45 favorite things.

10:45 I can jump on a train

10:46 and be in a different country with a

10:48 different history and a different

10:49 language over here.

10:52 And I think it's exactly this uniformity

10:55 that I've spoken about in the past that

10:56 I find kind of disturbing.

10:58 You know, the same looking strip mall, whether you're

11:00 on the west coast, in the south, on the

11:02 east coast, it all looks the same.

11:04 It's that uniformity that makes things

11:06 efficient and easier to build out and do

11:08 quickly.

11:09 So, I guess you're making a

11:10 trade, right?

11:11 And, you know, honestly,

11:12 on that point, it's like I love the old

11:14 world charm.

11:15 That's why I'm filming all

11:17 of this stuff in this beautiful city in

11:20 Europe, but there's constantly

11:23 renovation work that has to be done

11:25 because, you know, it's nice stuff

11:28 that's old that needs repairing.

11:30 I have yet to step foot in another country

11:32 that's as businessfriendly as the United

11:34 States.

11:35 I'm not saying it's the most

11:36 affordable place to do business, but it

11:38 definitely feels like it's the easiest

11:40 place to do business.

11:41 There's a real beauty to having an idea and being able

11:44 to execute it quickly, you know, and not

11:46 constantly having to work through

11:48 roadblocks, you know.

11:49 I'm somebody who will get excited about something and

11:51 will want to bring it to life quickly.

11:53 It's just nice to not feel bogged down.

11:55 And that is genuinely something that I

11:57 feel sometimes in Europe.

11:58 It feels like I am not encouraged to take big risks

12:02 here.

12:03 I do feel like my individualism is

12:05 sometimes seen as a problem here.

12:06 That again is something that I feel like was

12:08 learned in childhood.

12:09 Here you got to

12:10 move a little bit slower and you can't

12:12 deviate so far outside of the system

12:14 otherwise you get your ass kicked.

12:15 If I had to draw it

12:18 out, this is the spectrum and on one

12:20 side you have gas and on the other you

12:22 have brakes.

12:22 The US has built way more

12:24 towards convenience and efficiency and

12:26 you know same day shipping in your car

12:28 if you want.

12:29 A two-hour lunch break is

12:30 an absolute eternity.

12:32 So more on the gas

12:33 side of things, right?

12:34 And then in Europe it's a lot more about regulations

12:36 and consumer protections.

12:38 So there's more breaks built into the system.

12:41 Look at the data privacy laws or food

12:43 regulations.

12:44 Thank God for some of the

12:46 protections Europeans have in place for

12:48 this because it's frankly quite scary to

12:50 see what's happening in the US.

12:52 I don't even know what the FDA even does.

12:54 It feels like everything is genetically

12:55 modified now.

12:56 Kids are allowed to eat

12:58 sludge at school.

13:00 I was shocked when I

13:01 ate in a cafeteria in a French school.

13:04 It was beyond gourmet in comparison.

13:07 So, you know, people eat whatever in the US

13:10 unless you're a health nut, in which

13:12 case you're going to be very health

13:14 consscious.

13:15 Uh, and once again, an

13:16 example of the extremes of the country.

13:22 I think this also goes beyond

13:23 bureaucracy and regulations.

13:27 I think it's like a cultural attitude sort of

13:29 thing.

13:29 The idea of consumer being king

13:31 reigns supreme in the United States and

13:34 that just does not exist in Europe.

13:36 Living in France, another place that's

13:38 very invested in the idea of freedom.

13:41 You know, I realized that freedom

13:44 actually means very different things to

13:45 different people.

13:46 In the US, the idea of

13:47 freedom is tied to being able to do

13:49 stuff, to be able to own a gun or

13:53 getting an appointment very quickly to

13:55 something, right?

13:55 It's okay to work a

13:57 lot because that's your ticket to the

13:59 possibility of a better life.

14:01 That's kind of the premise of the American

14:02 dream, whether that still exists or not.

14:04 The French idea of freedom is way more

14:07 built around the idea of not having to

14:09 do something.

14:10 As in not having to work

14:12 one extra minute than is necessary

14:14 because that is your ticket to a worse

14:16 life, a life spent working more than you

14:19 have to.

14:19 You can see this happening

14:20 because all of the employees in a French

14:23 store like 30 minutes before it closes

14:25 start getting nervous and skittish

14:26 trying to get everybody out so that they

14:28 don't have to stay late.

14:30 And I mean, this is the country that adopted the 35h

14:32 hour work week all the way back in the

14:35 year 2000.

14:36 I saw this in the Netherlands

14:38 as well.

14:38 I was 3 minutes, and really I'm

14:40 not exaggerating here.

14:40 I was 3 minutes

14:41 late to returning a bike that I had

14:43 rented.

14:44 I called to see if I could still

14:45 return it.

14:46 And the shop owner answered

14:47 me telling me the shop was not only

14:49 closed, but he was already back home

14:52 with his kids.

14:52 Priorities, right?

14:53 And I mean, how can you fault them?

14:55 There is so much more to life than work.

14:59 Being a part of a community and getting

15:01 something from that community but also

15:03 contributing something to the community

15:05 give you more freedom in the end than

15:09 the individualistic approach.

15:13 Europeans have this kind of work life

15:15 separation thing mastered.

15:17 You talked before about not the

15:19 opportunity for like huge money, just

15:21 like opportunity just for Yeah.

15:23 more quiet life, which is is really cool

15:25 because it's just a whole different kind

15:27 of freedom, right?

15:29 From Sweden to Greece, Europeans know how to take their

15:31 vacation time often in July and August.

15:34 And what this means is that you just

15:36 never know when things are going to be

15:37 open.

15:37 So maybe this is just what it

15:39 costs to be part of a awesome system

15:43 that takes better care of its people.

15:45 He just has to deal with more bureaucracy

15:47 and more regulation.

15:48 I don't know if

15:48 there's a way to have it all.

15:49 Doesn't seem like it.

15:54 I have a different issue, a

15:56 different challenge, which is that I

15:59 have an entrepreneurial brain.

16:01 Like I don't have a normal relationship with

16:04 work.

16:04 I love what I do.

16:06 I'm very passionate.

16:07 And so all these employee

16:09 benefits, paid unemployment and

16:13 severance packages, like that doesn't

16:15 apply to me.

16:16 I'm on the other side of

16:17 things, which is that I have to think

16:18 very carefully before hiring somebody

16:20 because if that goes badly, it's really

16:22 bad.

16:22 I have to foot the bill.

16:24 And that can actually be ruinous for a business

16:27 owner in Europe.

16:28 The thing is like I

16:30 learned very early on in my career that

16:32 I just I don't want to be an employee.

16:33 I don't want to work for somebody else.

16:34 And even though that comes with all

16:36 kinds of its own stresses, I still way

16:38 prefer it.

16:38 So, let me explain a little

16:39 bit more what I mean by having to be

16:41 very careful about who you hire.

16:43 I spoke with someone who used to be the head of

16:45 HR, human resources, at a Fortune 500

16:48 company that operates globally.

16:50 She explained to me companies are legally

16:53 mandated to give some kind of reasonable

16:55 accommodations to find another job if

16:57 they let you go, like a wait period.

17:00 And that wait period can be as much as 3 to

17:02 6 months.

17:05 And you cannot terminate things

17:07 immediately unless things get really

17:10 bad.

17:10 As in like if the employee commits

17:12 a crime against the employer.

17:14 This makes the cost of failure of running a

17:17 business orders of magnitude greater in

17:20 Europe versus the United States because

17:21 in some cases businesses still have to

17:23 pay employee contracts for years even if

17:27 the business fails.

17:28 This in turn stifles

17:30 the appetite and the possibility to take

17:33 big business risks.

17:35 And then this goes

17:36 both ways, right?

17:37 So businesses can't lay off people right away.

17:39 There's that wait period.

17:41 But employees often can't

17:42 just quit right away.

17:43 Sometimes they have to give notice and if they've been

17:46 working at the company for a long time,

17:47 sometimes they have to still work for

17:49 several months before they can leave.

17:50 Some of these concepts are very

17:51 difficult for Americans to understand

17:53 because for us still having to work at a

17:56 company that you don't want to work at

17:58 anymore sounds kind of like indentured

18:02 servitude.

18:03 This stands in stark contrast

18:05 to the legal idea that applies in the

18:07 United States known as at will

18:09 employment where an employer is allowed

18:12 to dismiss an employee for any legal

18:15 reason at any time.

18:17 This is why Americans are known for you're fired.

18:19 You're fired.

18:20 You're fired.

18:20 You're fired.

18:21 So, in the United States, you can

18:22 go from one day having a job and a home

18:24 to not having a job.

18:26 And if things go

18:27 really badly, not having a home.

18:29 As a US employer, there are just so many less

18:32 hoops that you have to jump through.

18:33 2 weeks, which is nothing by European

18:37 standards, is traditional in terms of

18:39 giving notice, but not even a legal

18:40 requirement.

18:41 And so I know that this

18:42 horrifies a lot of Europeans, but it

18:45 goes both ways.

18:46 You know, as an

18:47 employee, you can step away at any time.

18:50 And the beauty of the system in the

18:52 United States, according to a lot of the

18:53 people, is that there's always going to

18:55 be work.

18:56 There's always going to be

18:57 opportunities out there.

18:58 You know, the US is used to seeing a way lower

19:00 unemployment rate than in Europe.

19:02 Is this freedom or is this the illusion of

19:05 freedom?

19:05 It's hard to say.

19:06 What I can say is that a lot of Americans live

19:08 paycheck to paycheck, which means that

19:10 these are razor thin margins.

19:12 That's a lot of stress to live with constantly.

19:14 Depending on who you are and what you

19:16 gravitate towards, there's probably one

19:19 system that better matches your

19:20 preferences than the other.

19:22 Without a doubt, I think we're seeing some of the

19:24 worst of it right now in the US with

19:26 Elon Musk and the Dogeled mass layoffs

19:29 that are taking place in the government.

19:32 Many people are just receiving an email

19:35 just like that.

19:35 Boom, you're done after

19:37 sometimes many years working for the

19:39 government.

19:39 It does feel like it borders

19:41 on cruelty, but this is also common in

19:44 the US.

19:45 I mean, you see this in the tech

19:46 sector all the time.

19:48 This is going to

19:48 depend on the person, the circumstances,

19:51 the location, right?

19:53 But generally speaking, it feels like Europeans are

19:55 okay with dedicating a smaller

19:57 percentage of their lives to work.

20:01 I'm the American nut job that loves what

20:03 I do, that is willing to put in many,

20:05 many hours.

20:06 This is again where I feel a

20:07 little bit different.

20:08 And there's downsides to that as well.

20:09 Uh where I have difficulty disconnecting and

20:12 separating work and life.

20:14 But in general, this is a huge source of

20:16 meaning for me and gives my life a lot

20:18 of direction.

20:19 I don't know.

20:19 I guess the concept of taking vacation time to just

20:22 do nothing isn't that appealing to me.

20:25 Which again probably makes me sound like

20:27 the obsessive workaholic American.

20:29 I don't know if it was my upbringing that

20:30 shaped me to be like this, but I feel in

20:33 this specific respect more at home in

20:35 the United States.

20:36 People don't look at

20:37 me like I'm weird over there.

20:39 So, if we build on this spectrum that I've laid

20:40 out already, considering the many

20:42 protections workers have in Europe, we

20:43 have security, an offshoot of the

20:45 regulations and work protections, so

20:47 that with the regulations, sick leave or

20:49 unemployment benefits.

20:50 When life hits you with surprises, you don't fall so

20:53 far.

20:54 You won't be bankrupted by

20:55 healthcare costs or student loan debt.

20:57 Well, actually, even if you declare

20:59 bankruptcy in the US, you can't get rid

21:01 of student loan debt.

21:01 So, I guess I

21:02 can't make that point.

21:03 But over here, we

21:04 have risk.

21:05 And what comes with risk is

21:06 also sometimes possibility.

21:08 More work opportunities, more heights that you can

21:11 climb.

21:12 Are these heights that you

21:13 necessarily want to climb?

21:14 Not me.

21:14 I didn't want to.

21:15 I'm not interested in

21:17 creating a startup that becomes a

21:18 unicorn and makes me a millionaire,

21:21 billionaire, or whatever.

21:22 I'm not interested in climbing the corporate

21:25 ladder.

21:26 And who benefits from these

21:27 possibilities, right?

21:28 Not everybody.

21:29 It's usually the rich that become a lot

21:31 richer.

21:31 This is why once again you end

21:33 up with a country of extremes, very

21:35 rich, very poor.

21:37 And I think you see this

21:39 everywhere in the world, but because

21:41 there's so much wealth in the United

21:42 States, it's even more upsetting that

21:45 there are people living in deplorable

21:47 conditions.

21:48 The very act of living in

21:49 the United States is a risk.

21:52 And I think you just as an American, you grow up in

21:54 that system and you get used to it.

21:55 You just adapt.

21:56 You you develop a mentality

21:58 around that.

21:58 I'm not entirely sure if I

22:00 can unlearn that.

22:01 You know, my parents

22:01 taught me to fend for myself, to not

22:04 rely on the government.

22:05 I guess it's just one way of operating.

22:07 It's kind of sad when you say it that way, honestly.

22:09 But instead of counting on social

22:11 security, you're much more focused on

22:13 saving up money and investing it and

22:15 building up a nest egg.

22:16 And this is why

22:17 there are so many people with side

22:18 hustles.

22:19 Depending on how you look at

22:20 it, it's either a testament of the

22:23 entrepreneurial spirit of the American

22:25 people or a disturbing commercialization

22:28 of every nook and cranny of our lives,

22:31 every hobby and fun activity and every

22:35 little thing.

22:36 And so, while individual

22:38 people have way more to lose in the

22:40 United States, companies and startups

22:42 have less to lose.

22:43 The system is better

22:44 set up for that.

22:45 And so I think that's

22:46 one of the reasons why the tech sector

22:48 is so much further along, so much more

22:50 developed in the US versus Europe.

22:51 Restructuring is easier.

22:53 And so this leads to the counterintuitive dynamic

22:55 that I wanted to talk about here, which

22:56 is that this riskier system that the US

23:00 has, it's like a more conservative

23:02 system, right?

23:03 There's less of the

23:04 left-leaning progressive social security, welfare safety nets in place.

23:10 It creates a dynamic where Americans are

23:12 more prone to take risks and that leads

23:14 to more innovation, more change.

23:16 Whereas in Europe, you have so many more of

23:18 these policies and that results in a

23:21 culture of business conservatism.

23:23 You don't want to take as big of risks.

23:25 What do I mean by that?

23:26 I mean like if we

23:26 look at the definition of the word

23:28 conservative, it's an aversion to

23:30 change.

23:30 It's more oriented towards

23:32 preservation of things.

23:36 And so with regards to innovation, I

23:39 mean, the US is so much further ahead.

23:42 I mean, you're watching this on an

23:44 American platform, and you may or may

23:46 not be watching it on a device that's

23:48 made by an American company.

23:49 I mean, you're definitely not watching it on a

23:51 Nokia.

23:52 And hat tip to Russell Max Simon,

23:54 who wrote an excellent essay about this,

23:58 all these employee protections make it

24:00 easier for employees to quietly quit,

24:02 right?

24:02 You can't be fired unless things

24:03 get really bad.

24:04 That can result in a

24:06 degraded work experience on one level

24:08 out of morale because the rest of the

24:10 team has to pick up the work that isn't

24:13 being done by people that are doing the

24:14 bare minimum.

24:15 Now, Europeans will go,

24:16 "Well, yeah, but in the US, you actually

24:20 do have burntout workers who don't have

24:23 any of the protections and therefore the

24:25 rest of the team still has to pick up

24:27 the workload, right?

24:28 Except people can't take breaks." It's really hard to

24:30 imagine the Amazon workers having to pee

24:32 in bottles because they don't have

24:34 enough time to take breaks situation

24:37 happening in Europe.

24:38 It looks like a dog

24:39 eat dog system where everybody's just

24:40 trying to become rich.

24:42 And this may go

24:42 some ways to explain why Americans don't

24:45 even take all of the little holiday, you

24:48 know, paid vacation time that they get.

24:49 So, we have this dynamic where you're it

24:52 feels like you're punished for taking

24:53 too many risks in Europe and it feels

24:55 like you're punished for not taking

24:56 enough risks in the United States.

24:58 So, is either system better?

25:00 I mean, it's not that simple of a question.

25:02 I will say I definitely know where I prefer to

25:04 live.

25:04 I do feel like I left the US with

25:06 skills that give me an advantage

25:09 elsewhere in the world.

25:10 I think some hustle is really not a bad thing.

25:12 A manageable dose.

25:13 And I always like that

25:14 Americans see and recognize hustle and

25:17 they will cheer you on.

25:18 They will not get in your way.

25:20 Whatever it is that you

25:22 do, wherever it is that you live, what

25:24 seems to matter the most is that you

25:26 find work that is meaningful to you.

25:28 And I think this is something that's

25:30 challenging no matter where you are.

25:31 The way I was able to do that was by

25:33 starting my own business.

25:34 And so therefore, I think I'm grateful to have

25:37 grown up in a system in a country where

25:40 starting up that business is easier to

25:45 do.

25:46 There's a lot more I want to say

25:48 about this, but I'm going to pause here

25:49 for now.

25:50 This is the first episode of an

25:52 entire series I'm doing comparing the

25:54 United States and Europe in a variety of

25:56 different facets of life.

25:58 And if you're interested in knowing when those videos

26:00 come out, please consider subscribing.

26:03 And please consider liking this video,

26:04 too, if you enjoyed it.

26:05 It helps me out

26:06 a lot.

26:06 It helps make this video show up

26:09 for more people.

26:10 You know, got to work

26:11 with the algorithms.

26:12 I have done a few

26:13 Europe versus US videos already, and

26:15 I'll link to those down below.

26:17 And I also write very regularly on Substack.

26:20 So if you enjoy my reflections on life

26:22 and navigating culture and the world

26:24 that we live in, that might be of

26:26 interest to you as well.

26:27 Again, I'll leave a link to that in the description.

26:29 Thanks for watching and I'll see you

26:31 soon.