World hegemony: mostly a function of the post-WWII situation, combined with our willingness to spend absolutely insane amounts on our military and use it to impose or at minimum encourage US interests globally.
Very high standard of living: the US has one of the highest GINI coefficients world wide, so only a median comparison (which is quite hard to develop) really conveys the differences accurately. Large swaths of the USA (notably Appalachia and also the desert southwest) have a substantially lower median standard of living than most of Europe.
Anyway, even if your claims about the USA were true, that by itself doesn't connect them to the VC risk/reward culture under discussion.
Such as? Name three examples, please. "smartphones and cars" doesn't cut it, those are pretty common even for low income citizens here in Germany at least, and we don't really need air conditioners on account of being located in higher latitudes – everyone has heating, though.
You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany. Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C. You're just used to being sweaty and uncomfortable.
A doctor who worked at Charite in Berlin told me last month that the whole summer he worked there he struggled to not drip sweat directly into patients as he leaned over them to work.
In the largest cities, perhaps. Don't try that in Santa Fe. For that matter, don't try it in Philadelphia, at least not after 23:00)
> 24 hour [...]
An unusual feature of western US grocery stores (not generally replicated in the midwest or east coast as a whole, though it is spreading). Not common in smaller cities or towns. 24 pharmacies are useful, but many large cities in western Europe have a few, and many small cities and towns in the USA do not.
> Cheap gas
A function of US vs. EU tax policy, nothing more (or less)
> Road trips etc.
Entirely possible in the EU and eminently common. The difference is that for many trips, you have the choice to do it the other way too, which is not feasible in the USA for most destinations.
Not only that, but if you choose to travel in a camper, in EU you have a plethora of dirt cheap places to legally pull in overnight that have bathrooms and if you need it water & electric. Essentially absent from the US.
> Hot water in sinks.
Not present in many gas station and campsite handwashing sinks.
> Whole Foods
Present in several cities across the UK. But you cannot be serious. I mean, I shop more or less 100% at WFM, but I can shop just as well, if not better, in the UK or Germany or France.
AGAIN, I ask: what is the evidence that any of this is connected the high risk/high reward entrepeneurial/VC culture of the USA? You seem to just be listing a set of things you like about the USA and waving your hands as if to say "it's all because of the entrepeneurial culture".
If we want to focus on air conditioners this much it seems to me that he issue isn't that people can't afford them it's that it's very hard to get one installed if you live in an apartment building (because they weren't designed for that and due to all kinds of rules and regulation). Many people living in detached houses can easily get one without having their children skip lunch.
> Many of the last 45 days here have been above 24C
Depends on the house thick walls are pretty good in keeping heat out in summer.
Less cheap gas is a result of taxing the negative externalities of fossil fuels. Air con is rarer because intense summer heat (while it happens) is less pervasive and extreme than in most of the US. Personal vehicles are less common because public transport is great. No “Whole Foods” because good produce is common in regular supermarkets.
“Road trips” is the most hilarious point. I can hop on a train and be in one of several countries with a different culture and language in an hour.
How did you come to that conclusion? I mean are you talking about taste preferences or about the quality.
Because quality wise it seems that there is quite a bit more variability in the US than in some nicer European countries like France, Spain, Italy and some chains in Britain and other countries (EE OTH is not that great even when comparing to the US...) but in general you can find "high quality" food if you look for it.
For the Americans, 24C means “many days have been above 75F” which I don’t think is going to get a lot of sympathy.
Funny thing is that you’ve described Moscow here.
> You're 100% wrong about not needing air conditioning in Germany.
I realize that for an average American Germany is just a point on the map, but here in the north we had only a couple of hot days this summer. Otherwise - a truly horrifying story.
Please do tell more. I’m curious to learn.
And yet the quality of life doesn’t even begin to compare.
As a European who also lives in a 4000 sqft brand new house in the south of the US, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone though. I’d happily take a 2000sqft house that was built at least to the standard of the second of the three little pigs, something which seems to elude construction crews south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Regardless though, the size of your house says very little about the quality of your life.
[1]: https://www.winkworth.co.uk/properties/sales/lansdown-road-b...
But North America is fricking huge, and if you are willing to move out of the city it's hard to not grant you that at least: you have a loot of room.
