Is Life Better in the USA or Europe? (An Honest Review)

It turns out humans are not the same everywhere. Who you are is at least partially influenced by where you are. Your environment literally has an impact on you. And if you don't believe me, studies show this. And this is a dynamic that's influencing all of us, including me. as I've moved from one continent to another. The tug of war between the US and Europe is just so intriguing to me. It just feels like this endless battle between the new and the old world in the West. There's no right and wrong, obviously, when it comes to a discussion like this of cultural comparison. There's just trade-offs. It turns out that... You can't have it all. I think the human race really benefits as a species from our differences. Plus it's really fun to articulate the things that I'm seeing take place in the world. And so that's the inspiration behind this piece. Comparing the life that I've lived for 19 years in the US to the one that I've lived for five years here in Europe. And how my view of things continues to evolve. Now... National stereotypes are nothing new, right? One of the easiest ones to point to is the idea that there's more introversion in Asia, for example. Generally speaking, massive generalization and more extroversion in other places like Brazil. There are exceptions to all generalizations, right? But there's also a grain of truth. You know, the jokes that we make about these sorts of things wouldn't be funny if they were completely inaccurate. If I were to say, oh, the US is a quiet country that is very respectful to all other nations. and doesn't make a lot of noise. I lose all credibility, right? You just don't believe me because there's not really a lot of truth to that. Now, while I've already made a few pieces exploring cultural comparisons between different parts of the world, different countries and different regions, I want to dig a little bit deeper this time. Beyond superficial comparisons like, oh, Europeans use air conditioning a lot less than Americans. Yes, produce is... a lot cheaper and a lot higher quality in Europe than in the United States because the governments subsidize that sort of thing because people care about it a lot more. And yes, technology is a lot more affordable in the United States, partially because of taxation on imports, but also because as a society there's more of an orientation towards innovation. And one of the ways that keeping up with the Joneses manifests itself in the US is having the latest shiny thing. But I want to dig deeper into the character of these two continents and the trends that I'm noticing in people that live in these two continents. Oh my god, there's no lanes. There are no lanes. Fair warning, these are just my opinions. I am just sharing my observations that I see in the world and within myself. So take it or leave it. And if you disagree with something that I say, please feel free to share it in the comments. This is supposed to be fun. I find this sort of thing fun. For every point I'm going to make here, I'm going to really try Despite my biases, yes, I chose to live in Europe. Explore the positives and negatives here because I think there are positives and negatives on both sides. Americans are known for their patriotism, literally thinking to themselves, we are the best. And that's definitely not everyone, but enough people do think that, that it's a real thing. This really cracks me up because, you know, that's got to be one of the fastest ways that I can think of to tick someone off. Like, who likes the guy who shows up at the party and won't stop talking about how they're the best? As I'm sure you can tell, this really annoyed me quite a bit, having grown up in the US but with immigrant parents. But a lot of Americans really believe this. And what doesn't help matters is the reality that a lot of people can point to the fact that the US is a world superpower. And look, there are a lot of really proud Europeans too, and maybe secretly they think they're the best. Okay, but it is a little bit harder to make the argument that you're the top dog right now if you're Greek or Italian when in reality your moment to shine came centuries ago. For the record! I don't think there's a best country. I don't think in those terms. I think different countries are good at different things and I don't feel like quantitative measurements like GDP say anything about the quality of a country. Now the reason I bring all this up is because of a weird feeling that I get when I return to the US. It's this feeling that I'm in the center of the universe and obviously I know that's not the case but the relationship between the US and Europe It doesn't work the same way both ways. Here in Europe, there's a steady stream of news coming from the US, but when I'm over there, it feels like there isn't much talk about what's going on in the rest of the world unless something really big happens, like a war. Most mainstream media barely covers what's going on internationally, and unless you're a worldly American, and there definitely are some of those out there, you don't have very much of an idea of what's going on out there. In many ways, the US does feel geographically isolated. And maybe that's because the distance between Los Angeles and Las Vegas is bigger than the distance between Paris and London. It does feel like Europe is closer to a lot of the rest of the world. And because the distance is smaller, you can't pretend that there aren't neighbors all around you. France cannot pretend Germany isn't like right there. I personally believe this is a major factor in how we ended up with the stereotype that Americans are terrible at geography. world geography, maybe also the stereotype that a lot of Americans are uncultured. And speaking of that, actually, culture is a confusing word. There's something extremely interesting to me about the whole conversation about culture. According to a lot of Europeans, the U.S. is a place that lacks culture. But that doesn't make a lot of sense because the U.S. is actually one of, if not the biggest exporters. culture in the whole world that's one of those things that really shocked me when I moved abroad everyone is exposed to the aforementioned American media and therefore American politics and current events American music is everywhere it's ubiquitous honestly you could say I'm an export of the United States and I'm not sure I could argue with that the US is like always the loudest kid in the room and even just cities like New York are an explosion of art and it's one city in a giant country. So what are we saying here really? What are Europeans referring to? I don't think these big mainstream exports are what Europeans are referring to. I think they're talking about what you do on a day-to-day basis and how much that can change from region to region. I'm talking about the customs and traditions that have been passed down for generations. The different regional dishes that come from centuries ago. I'm talking about the superstitions or the different card games or the celebrations that take place that commemorate something that happened before modern-day France or Austria or Italy even existed. Bizarre linguistic quirks beyond the fact that there's a different language every direction you look. Architecture that changes every few hundred kilometers or miles. Am I suggesting that the US does not have customs and traditions? No, it does. I think about Thanksgiving and Halloween and hot dogs and baseball, the Super Bowl. There are a lot of things. It's a big country. But one thing all of these things have in common is that they stretch across the entire expanse of the country. The US, for better or for worse, is associated with uniformity and scale. Maybe that's just a facet of being such a young country. For better or for worse, Europeans see the KFCs and the Starbucks that... dotted across all their major cities and they see that as the mark of the US and how it operates now a lot of Americans know this and some even criticize this right but it's still happening I just personally have a sinking feeling when I see the same exact strip mall in any state that I might go and it does feel like the only way I can see the same thing in Hungary and Spain is if I go to a major chain a lot of which are American again maybe this is because of size you know A four hour train ride can take you to any one of like seven countries in Europe. And you're lucky if a four hour flight will take you outside of the US. And I think a lot of Europeans take pride in this cultural richness, the density of different things going on, you know, being able to go to a different place so easily and not understand a word. One major difference for me between the Europe and US is the language element. And I know I care about this more than most people, but I do think it has an impact on your experience of each place. And it's one of the main reasons why I moved to Europe. Yes, you have all kinds of language diversity in places like Miami and New York, which is really cool. But overall, English... will do the job in the US. That's really not the case in Europe. Yes, English is the most international language, but still to this day, not being able to speak French when you're in France means you are not having the full French experience. That's just how it is. And honestly, I love living in a world where there are many different languages and many different ways to say things and that we don't all necessarily understand each other. For me, it's very stimulating. Seeing or hearing the different sounds and different ways that people can communicate with each other. It adds a lot of color to the world. Yes, I speak Spanish, but if I go to Barcelona or spend time in Catalonia, I don't understand Catalan. I speak Italian, but... Southern Italians are difficult for me to understand partially because the accent partially because the dialects It's just awesome richness that I appreciate so much and kind of counterintuitively it is Precisely because there is that barrier there that it's difficult to learn a language that it's difficult to decode how people are communicating that when you do unlock that door, it's like that much more incredible. That is what makes languages so amazing to me. They're world-expanding tools. I fell in love with France and with Europe when I did my exchange in France because I was forced to learn the language. I just had to. It's like learning how to think in a new way. There's something so exciting about that to me. Without that, I would have never immersed myself in France. I would have never created the life that I have now. Speaking the language is often the difference between having a superficial tourist experience delving deeper into the culture. I like to think of it as overcoming the moat around a castle so that you can actually storm the castle itself. Who doesn't want to see what's inside that castle, you know what I mean? Now, Lingoda is the sponsor of this video and they offer a really powerful tool that can help you storm the castle. if you will they offer live online classes with professionals to help you learn foreign languages and to make it interesting they offer a variety of challenges and language sprints if you actually complete the language sprint you can get some or all of your money back so there's an additional incentive there which i think is a Brilliant idea. I've done my own language sprints to great effect and sometimes you just need that extra oomph to get things rolling on top of it This has been designed to promote consistency which is huge to building the skill over the long term if you're interested in checking it out I'll leave a link in the description and you can use my code to get 20 euros or $25 off the registration for your sprint Thank You Lingoda for sponsoring this video speed of life One of the things that really struck me the last time I went back to the US is the speed of things and the fact that there are less guardrails, less people and things that are going to slow you down or get in your way. And because of that, many people go very fast. In the US, for example, it's perfectly socially acceptable to wolf down a sandwich in three minutes and get right back to work. I'm not saying that's what always happens. I'm just saying that it's okay. People are not going to judge you. It's like an acceptable thing to do. And people will walk down the street eating or they'll eat in their car. And in Europe, you're never going to see those sorts of things. Or if you do, it's like an extremely rare... I don't know, I can't remember ever seeing it personally. These things are not okay. They're looked down upon in exactly the same way that smoking is looked down upon in the US. Which goes to show you, human beings are willing to draw different lines in the sand. Europeans will tell you it's not healthy, right? To eat that fast, it's rushed. But it goes beyond that. It feels almost morally wrong. I think that's a good spot to pause and introduce a new concept. I have this running theory that there are two forces at play in shaping culture. The first is peer pressure. There's always a certain kind of pressure that exists enforced by the people around you on how things should be, how you should operate. And the other idea is normalization. It's seeing... certain kind of behavior that's very widespread around you to the point where you get desensitized to it and you find it normal so let's talk about some examples of this I want to talk about work here for a second but she was very related to the speed of things in my mind the US is a super competitive society there's a lot of peer pressure to work harder and longer and if you don't somebody will be there to replace you no guardrails no off switch so it leads to a more imbalanced way of living I find this leads to dynamic where there's very little vacation time and not just that people don't take that vacation time you're lucky to get even a couple of weeks but it's been normalized to not even necessarily take that time that becomes a sort of like self-perpetuating cycle it does feel like there's a fear of stopping so there's the peer pressure and the normalization of work that's taking place in the us and the same is at work in Europe, but just in a very different way. In Europe, I feel a sort of peer pressure to not work at certain times like on Sunday because it's seen as insane and unhealthy. And because Europeans treasure their vacation time and really stick to it, it has a normalizing effect. I don't look at time off in the same way I used to. I'm going to realize it's good to unplug, to recharge, you know, to not have everything revolve around work. So there's pros and cons. to both sides here because I think the U.S. is a really incredible place for the ambitious if you want to advance your career. And that feeling of ambition all around you can be infectious. I felt it as like a fresh wave of energy. The only thing is it doesn't feel conducive to a healthy rhythm over the long term. And the thing about grocery shopping, you know, I was seeing a lot of people order on Instacart or Uber Eats or whatever. And it's not like those things don't exist in Europe. But there's like an emphasis on efficiency in the U.S. Here in Europe, a lot of people will shop for groceries on a very regular basis almost daily or every other day for fresh produce and they'll buy in season. There's nothing really efficient about that, but it is healthier and tastier. Now, I wanted to talk a little bit more about acceptable behavior because it's related to this point I made about peer pressure and normalization. There are clearly different ideas about work, but also just what is acceptable behavior in general. I find that there's a lot more of an anything goes kind of attitude in the U.S. than in Europe. Growing up, each year there would be a pajama day, which was this really fun day where you'd go to school in your pajamas. I did this when I was like 11, 12 years old. And I'm not sure what happened. Maybe this has always been the case and I didn't realize it. But it really struck me that I will see adults, full-grown adults, walking around in pajamas. In the US. I saw it when I was there just a few weeks ago. I have never seen that in Europe and in fact it's funny the opposite is taking place here in Paris where women in my life in particular will come and visit and they feel they cannot go out without dressing well because Paris is such a capital of fashion and looking good I guess. I do draw a link I don't know how related they are but in my mind they're connected between this casualness and the American dream. You're allowed to dream about things that feel ridiculous or impossible. Or maybe that contributes to the startup culture that exists in the US, the entrepreneurial spirit. And of course, I should say there's nuance there. There are differences between the coasts of the United States and the middle of the country. There are differences across the different countries in Europe on this particular issue and all issues. But still, I feel... a different vibe when i'm here in europe and i have found that this has had a positive effect in my life this is one thing i'm really grateful for from my time in the u.s it's this mindset of like going for it taking risks and figuring out a lot of the rest later on look i'm aware that there's a lot of psychoanalyzing going on here and maybe the way that i see the world says a lot more about me than the world i'm open to that possibility but what i love about making these cultural comparisons is the fact that it's always a reminder that there's more than one way to live life. I think a lot of life is shaped by our values and the things that we choose to stand by. And a lot of it is based off of what resonates, what feels right. If you have the privilege to travel or to move to another place, it can be a world-expanding experience. But even if you can't do that, being aware of the biases inherent in living in a particular place, because there are always biases, can lead to a richer, more well-rounded experience of life, I think. Life is full of trade-offs, but I do believe in the power of picking and choosing what works for you. deciding what your trade-offs are to the extent that you can. I really try my hardest to embody the best of all the places that I've ever lived in. It's just fun, I guess, to see how different groups of humans operate. I think we can better appreciate the world with contrast. Anyway, I hope this gave you some food for thought. All right, for those of you that have stuck around this long, I just want to mention a special project that I've been working on for a very long time. It's called Frame by Frame. It's a post-production masterclass where my lead editor, my brother, and I all share everything that we know about post-production, creating videos and animations. This is something I'm super passionate about. It's a skill that I've built my entire career on, the way that I am able to reach all of you. And we're doing it in a really special way by having a bunch of highly curated core material alongside live sessions so that I can interact directly with all of you as well as provide feedback and answer questions. If you're interested, I'll leave a link in the description below so you can keep an eye out for when it's available next. All right, I'll see you guys soon.

Use the code NATHANIEL20 with this link to get a discount when signing up to Lingoda: https://try.lingoda.com/NathanielDrew_Sprint

my blog/newsletter → https://nathanieldrew.substack.com/
second channel → https://www.youtube.com/@nobackupplan
instagram → https://www.instagram.com/nathanieldrew_/
online courses → https://www.nathanieldrew.com/onlinecourses
music → https://johnny-harris-x-tom-fox.disco.ac/cat/1632843844

Check out Frame x Frame (my post-production masterclass to learn how I edit/animate) → https://www.fxfcourse.com/