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Why America Hates Socialism (And Europe Loves It)

September 2, 2026 26:110 comments♥ 0
00:00 Why has America always been fiercely anti-socialist while almost every European country guarantees free health care, free college, parental leave? In Sweden, they literally pay you to go to school. And Italy pays you $500 to turn 18. That's kind of sus though.
00:17 Whose idea was that? Jeffrey Epstein? America and Europe are generally thought to be one Western civilization. That's why we call it the Old World and the New World. So, why is America so staunchly free market and Europe literally giving their citizens free Olivia Rodrigo tickets? Well, it's all because of one
00:34 man who changed Europe forever. One man who drove a cultural wedge between America and Europe so deep that his effects are still felt today every time a European sneers at an unsophisticated American. >> You're from America? Weren't you fat? >> Sir, are you from New York?
00:49 >> Or LA? >> I'm from Hungary. Do you know what that is? >> Or every time an American calls a European socialist. >> I think it's funny when Europeans are like, "You're American. You only speak one
01:03 language, right?" That's not a flex. You had to learn my language so you could communicate with me. You're my >> So, who's the man who's entirely responsible for socialist Europe versus capitalist America?
01:19 His name is Adolf Hitler. After Napoleon destroyed Europe, European elites called a congress in 1817 to make sure there could never be another Napoleon. They banned democracy, they banned revolution, and they reinstated the
01:35 divine right of kings. And you know what? It worked. For 100 years, there were no major European wars. However, at the turn of the 20th century, the Congress of Vienna was replaced by something new, nationalism. As different European countries fought each other to colonize Africa and Germany and Italy
01:51 became unified states, suddenly you became proud to be German or Italian or even French. >> And you wanted to conquer more of Africa than the English or the Spaniards. And this eventually culminated in World War I. And it is hard to overstate just how traumatic World War I was. Several
02:09 countries lost over a tenth of their population, and it wasn't just from guns. It was from brand new murder weapons. Tanks, flamethrowers, poison gas that would slowly burn thousands of men alive from the inside, like the poison fog in The Hunger Games. >> [screaming]
02:28 >> Entire cities were destroyed. Nine towns outside Verdun, France, were literally wiped off the map. Like to this day, they no longer exist. And it was this civilizational holocaust that made Europe lose confidence in itself. Europe gives up all its colonies willingly. They just become so demoralized. How can
02:45 we govern another land if we can't have peace at home? They were ready for any kind of new change because the old order brought them World War II. That's why it's over the next few years that Russia becomes the Soviet Union. Spain, Austria, and Germany become fascist. Mongolia and Ukraine become communist.
03:01 And this terrified the rest of Europe. Winston Churchill declared that communism and fascism were the two specters that threatened to envelop Europe. And then when Hitler proves him right by taking over Europe and Stalin splits it in two, every remaining political leader agreed they would do
03:15 whatever it took to make sure fascism and communism never rose again. Just like when the Congress of Vienna declared Napoleon can never rise again. English historian Michael Howard said those who were not alive at the time may find it difficult to appreciate the extent to which European politics in the
03:32 post-war years were governed by the fear of a German revival and directed to make sure that it never could happen. But why? Why such an extreme reaction? I mean, Europe had had wars before. Why was World War II so radicalizing that European elites decided they would do anything, including sacrifice their own
03:49 nationhood, their own identity, to prevent it from happening again. Well, it was because World War II was unlike every previous European war. Other European armies, like the Swedes occupying Germany in the Thirty Years' War, or the Prussians occupying France in the Franco-Prussian War, were just
04:05 that, occupying armies. The German army, the Wehrmacht, were not like any 17th century Lutheran. They murdered or enslaved every civilian they conquered. In fact, one of the defining features of World War II was how many civilians died instead of soldiers. Europe in 1945 was a wasteland. Bodies flung in the
04:22 streets. Trains couldn't run because there were so many dead bodies in their way. In the words of one historian, "Even the public trams seemed shell-shocked." One of my favorite quotes is by Milton Friedman, who said, "Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change. When that crisis
04:38 occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is the basic task of the political theorist, to develop alternatives to existing policies, and to keep those ideas alive until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable." And he's
04:55 just correct. Communism was developed in the 1830s, but it took the crisis of World War I nearly a century later for any country to implement it. So, do you see where I'm going with this? Europe's devastation following the war was certainly a crisis, and European citizens definitely wanted change. We
05:12 tend to think that Europe forcefully rejected fascism in 1945 and communism in 1948, but that's a fiction. Because imagine you're European in 1945. You've just seen your family members murdered, your houses destroyed, you were left to die on the streets because all your hospitals were bombed. Historian Tony
05:30 Judt writes, "The possibility that this utter hopelessness would drive Europe back into the hands of the fascists, the revolutionists, the communists, seemed very real." As one middle-class woman expressed it in 1945, "I'm so so for a house, I'd do anything. Four walls and a roof is the height of my ambition. So,
05:50 at this height of European desperation, the official Communist parties of Italy, France, and Belgium remained in elected government. Italy, France, and Czechoslovakia were turning to socialism. By 1947, 1 million French citizens had joined the Communist Party, and in Italy, it was 2 and 1/4 million.
06:07 Even in Denmark and Norway, one in eight voters leaned Communist. In West Germany, American officials feared the nostalgia for the better days of Nazism before everything had been bombed into oblivion would create a neo-Nazi revival. A French opinion poll in 1947 found that 92% of citizens thought
06:24 things were going badly. The French financial minister even declared, "We are threatened with total economic catastrophe." And so quickly, European elites decided they needed to do something fast if their continent wasn't going to return to the fascism and communism they just defeated. So, they
06:38 thought to themselves, "How can we make our citizens happy again so they won't want to revolt?" And do you know what they came up with? The modern European welfare system. They said Europeans won't rebel if we give them free healthcare and college and Olivia Rodrigo tickets. Europe's welfare state
06:53 was not born of optimistic idealism. It was the insecure child of anxiety against the prospect of a fascist or Communist revolt. The welfare state was a prophylactic to keep the monster of revolution at bay. A contemporary sociologist observed, "All of us know by now that from this war, there is no way
07:14 back to a laissez-faire society." Europeans saw World War II as the failure of the old system, so they were ready for a new one. So, the European elites was like, "Okay, welfare will keep citizens from rebelling against their leaders. That's great. However, we still have the problem of nationalism.
07:29 Nationalism makes Europeans want to rebel against other people's leaders, against other countries. So, just as we have the welfare state to quell domestic unrest, we need something to quell international unrest." And what did we learn from Uncle Milty? In a crisis, people turn to the ideas that are lying
07:45 around. Well, convenient for the European elites following World War Woodrow Wilson had proposed a world government to keep peace among nations called the League of Nations. This was perfect. The European elites thought, we can make our own European League of Nations. So instead of a Englishman
08:02 thinking he's English or especially a German thinking he's a German, we can convince them all that they're just Europeans. In the words of Winston Churchill, we need to create a United States of Europe. And that makes sense. Think about when the founding fathers were trying to ratify the Constitution.
08:18 People in the South thought of themselves as Virginians or Georgians. People in the North thought of themselves as Puritans or New Englanders. They needed to create a new super identity to unify the 13 colonies. And that's exactly what they were doing now in Europe. The European elite had a
08:33 vision. Create a welfare state and end nationalism. But they had a problem. How would they get every country in Europe to agree to it? Well, they figured they only needed to get the biggest three to say yes and then the smaller countries would follow. So who are the three biggest countries? Well, you have
08:47 England, but England already had a welfare state and it was Winston Churchill who was leading the charge for European Union. So that left France and Germany. Churchill said, there can be no revival of Europe without a spiritually great France and a spiritually great Germany. So the crafty European
09:02 federalists like French Prime Minister Robert Schuman devised a plan. Germany had become a pariah state because they created two World Wars in 20 years. Ethnic Germans were being murdered and ethnically cleansed across the continent because of how much the rest of Europe resented what Germany did to them. But
09:18 nonetheless, Germany was still the biggest European country and an economic leader in industries like coal and steel. Well, France desperately wanted as much economic power as Germany. Because after they lost the war, they developed in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, a national inferiority complex.
09:33 So this was the perfect opportunity the European elites needed. They said, "Hey Germany, we'll give you the respectability of France so you're no longer a pariah state." And they said, "Hey France, we'll give you Germany's industry so you can become an economic powerhouse. Come join the European
09:48 Union." >> They basically developed a treaty with Germany to pool the German industrial resources into a joint France-German zone. And then it became the political union that the European Union has become. But when you go back to the core of it, it was a deal between two ancient
10:06 adversaries who had fought each other in two World Wars, and their conflict was the core reason for both World Wars. And it was a decision between the two of them to merge their interests. >> In the words of Schuman, "This way, war between France and Germany becomes not merely unthinkable, but materially
10:24 impossible because France and Germany, along with the rest of Europe, will share the means of production." Okay, so let's recap. Hitler destroys Europe, and to make sure that doesn't happen again, the European elites say, "We need to eliminate nationalism so we have no reason to fight with each other, and we
10:40 need to create a welfare state so citizens don't want to rebel against their own leadership." Everything was going great, except one thing. Europe didn't have any money for a welfare state. So it's all great that Winston Churchill wanted to give his citizens health care, and Charles de Gaulle
10:54 wanted every 18-year-old to go to Lollapalooza or whatever, but they were broke. They just had a war. And don't think the US was coming to help them. Literally the week after Japan surrendered, Truman calls Winston Churchill and he's like, "All right, can I have back all the money I loaned you
11:08 in the war?" >> Show me the money! >> So now the European elites are depressed. They had such a beautiful vision, but they didn't have the money for it. So when American Secretary of State George Marshall visits Europe in 1947, he looks around and he's like,
11:21 "What the hell? Why are you so depressed?" So the European elites say, "George, George, we had this great idea to like end nationalism and start welfare, but we don't have any money." And George is like, "Wow, that's sucks. Well, see you." And the elites are like, "Wait, wait, wait, [screaming] wait,
11:35 George. Maybe you could lend us a couple dollars?" And George was like, "You're up. You're the worst." So, George Marshall goes to President Truman and he's like, "Harry, these Europeans are broke as hell. We got to give them like, you know, a couple bucks." And Harry Truman's like, "Oh, whatever.
11:49 Here's 20 bucks." So, George goes back to Europe and he's like, "All right, guys. Here's 20 bucks, but you have to pay us back." And England's like, "What the hell are we going to do with 20 bucks?" So, because America didn't give Europe nearly enough money to recover, Britain started having a ton of bank
12:02 runs. Every country just got poorer. And in the words of John Maynard Keynes, they were facing an economic Dunkirk. At the same time, Joseph Stalin made it clear he wanted to take over all of Europe, not just keep the Eastern Bloc. And a surprisingly large swath of Western Europe was like, "We're already
12:19 starving. We have nothing to lose. Let's become Soviet, I guess." Also, Truman reached the Keynesian conclusion that if Europe recovered, Americans would suddenly have 150 million more people to sell their goods and services to. So, in order to boost the American economy and prevent Western Europe from falling into
12:36 Soviet domination, Harry Truman started considering giving the Europeans a lot more money. But, he had one hang-up. Was he really going to give Germany, the creator of so much devastation, a bunch of money and a free pass? But, his Secretary of State George Marshall reminded him that punishing Germany for
12:51 World War I was exactly what caused World War II. We should forgive Germany and bring them into the economic community. Former President Hoover even advised Truman that you can have vengeance or you can have peace, but you can't have both. So, Truman gives up. He's like, "Whatever." And he gives
13:06 Europe the economic equivalent today of 200 billion dollars. But, at first, Europe hesitated to take the money. Europe had already been defeated once. They didn't want to become a vassal state of America. They didn't want to become America's helpless sugar baby. So, Harry Truman had to promise them
13:24 they can spend the money however they want. And just like that, what became known as the Marshall Plan gave European elites the money they needed to eradicate nationalism and create a major welfare state in what would eventually be known as the European Union. The British Foreign Secretary called the
13:40 Marshall Plan a lifeline to sinking men, bringing hope where there was none. Winston Churchill called it the most unsordid act in history. And suddenly, the differences between every European country became trivial when they were all just trying to recover from the war. Every European country shared the same
13:58 goal, and the Marshall Plan gave them all the means to achieve it. The Marshall Plan didn't just give to individual countries, it gave to all of Europe to share. So, every European country became used to sharing with every other European country and trading with each other and treating each other
14:12 as allies, as almost part of a super European civilization. Churchill's dream of a United States of Europe was coming true. When FDR tried to implement something similar, including national health care in his New Deal, he had strong opposition from the wealthy and business interests. But, you didn't have
14:27 that in Europe because after the war, no one was rich. Everyone was poor. >> Nobody had access to health care. Nobody had jobs. And the Europeans in that context, financed by the Marshall Plan, set up your social welfare programs for everybody. When the Marshall Plan ended, they had to pick up the burden
14:46 themselves, and the Europeans willingly shouldered this very high burden of taxation to pay for these benefits because they themselves had just recently been dependent upon them. And that created a whole environment in Europe that persists to this day that regards these social welfare benefits as
15:07 normal and appropriate. >> Remarking on the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan, President Bill Clinton said it told Europe to put your old divisions behind you, and that it planted the seeds for a unified European identity that would lead to the OECD, the European Union, and NATO. But
15:23 there's one additional reason that the European integration worked so well. In the 19th century, Europe had a pretty diverse mix of peoples. Jews and Gypsies and Germans lived all across the continent. But thanks to the wars, occupations, boundary adjustments, expulsions, and genocides of the first
15:40 half of the 20th century, by 1945, almost every people lived in their own country among their own people, which greatly reduced the possibility of ethnic conflict. And the whole European welfare state couldn't have emerged before World War II. You want to know why? Both the left and the right were
15:58 firmly opposed to it. Before the war, European conservatives supported the capitalist status quo. But just as well, European socialists were very Marxist, meaning they didn't want any incrementalism. They were waiting for capitalism's inevitable collapse as Karl Marx predicted, so they could create a
16:16 communist society from scratch. The idea of this mixed economy with socialized medicine and private property was on nobody's agenda. And so when the war was so devastating, nobody wanted to listen to any old idea. So they had to come up with a new one. And a new idea was creating this kind of mixed economy.
16:33 English historian A.J.R. Taylor told BBC listeners in 1945 that nobody in Europe believes in the old system of private enterprise anymore. Or rather, those who believe in it are a defeated party, which seems to have no more future than the Jacobites in England after 1688. As historian Tony Judt writes, both fascism
16:53 and communism thrived on social despair, on the huge gulf separating rich and poor. If European democracies were to recover, the condition of the people must be addressed. In the words of Thomas Carlyle, if something be not done, something will do itself one day and in a fashion that will please
17:11 nobody. Meaning if we don't help our people live good lives now, they're going to turn to a much more radical solution a few years down the road. So, why didn't America become partially socialist like Europe? Because America never had the destruction of World War II to bring them to such despair that
17:26 would make them consider a whole new way of doing things. As Jude explains, socialism was a prescription for hard times and in the United States, at least after 1952, times were no longer so hard. And I'll add one other reason that European countries were able to become so radically economically liberal in
17:44 such a short time period is because most of them banned right-wing parties. So, essentially you could only vote for like outright socialism or mixed socialism. In fact, the Christian Democrat parties, who were the parties of mixed socialism, would always say, "Vote for us, like we're conservative. We don't want to go
18:01 full Marxist. We just, you know, we just want to do a little bit." And they overwhelmingly won the conservative vote because they had no other competition. And of course, it was also much more difficult for America to become socialist because America was so much less homogeneous than Europe. didn't
18:15 have the social trust that makes a massive redistribution plan possible. In fact, the closest America got to a European-style welfare system was under FDR's New Deal in the '30s and that specifically was like the first time in American history where they had banned immigration. And so, finally, in 1948,
18:31 the leaders of every European country got together in their own Congress of Vienna called the Congress of Europe where they wrote their European Declaration of Independence. There should be freedom of migration. They should all share a common currency. They should all share the same factories. As
18:45 one of the founding of the United States of Europe, Dennis de Rougemont declared, "Europe is much older than the European nations. Their lack of unity and their ever more illusory claims to absolute sovereignty endanger Europe's very existence. If only these countries can unite, Europe can be saved." And in
19:03 denouncing nationalism, the namesake of the building the EU meets in to this day, Altiero Spinelli, wrote, "The absolute sovereignty of national states has led to the desire of each of them to dominate since each feels threatened by the strength of the others. Another European federalist advocated, "The
19:21 ultimate foundation of our culture is not the national state, but the European unity." So after months of deliberations presided over by Winston Churchill, the Congress of Europe declared their cultural, social, and economic vision for their continent. Quote, "The time has come when the European nations must
19:38 transfer and merge some portion of their sovereign rights. The creation of a united Europe is an essential element in the creation of a united world." And so this is why today Europe has much more welfare than the United States and is much less nationalistic. I mean, think about it. It was America, not Europe,
19:56 who led the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and for that matter Korea and Vietnam and today Iran. Far from being dead, the Congress of Europe is more alive today than ever. Europe is more a single civilization than it was even in 1948. Brexit in 2016 was all about England declaring sovereignty from their greater
20:14 European identity. So unless we understand why this united Europe was created in the first place as a way to make sure Hitler could never rise again, as a way to make sure no country felt nationalistic enough to take over any other, we won't understand Europe and we won't be able to say if the EU is good
20:29 or bad. So the next time you're in Europe and you get a free medical operation, make sure to thank Hitler. And you know, say what you will about the Congress of Europe, but just like the Congress of Vienna that preceded it, it worked. Europe hasn't had a major war in 80 years. Although I do find it
20:44 ironic that European's crown jewel, their social welfare programs, was started and funded by America. A lot of Americans think Europe is better than America because of this Marshall Plan welfare system. >> When I was in America for 27 years, I was like America's the best country in
20:59 the world. We have everything. We have more of it. Everybody wants our culture, our movies, our music. So then I moved to Europe. Then I'm like, "Yo, I think this system is better." If you have a baby here, the mother is entitled to paid maternity leave. Americans don't even know what that means. If I were to
21:13 be here and I break my arm, it's within the health care. You feel sick, go to the doctor, check it out. You don't have to pay. In America, you pay for every single step of the way. My son or my daughter, she will go to college for free. In America, it it's like a trillion-dollar industry trying to get
21:26 trying to get into college. You need a scholarship. You need to earn that. It's like $20,000 in debt, $40,000 in debt. >> loans are everything. >> Yeah, but then a lot of Brits think America is better because we're more independent and didn't give away our sovereignty in 1948.
21:39 >> I prefer America to London. >> Oh. >> I feel like America is just like Lagos. There's rules, but there's also no rules. Like, everybody's just gangster and stuff. Yeah, all of you your life here is programmed. Take 10 minutes to drink, take 10 minutes. Put your Oyster
21:51 card. Oh, Elizabeth line. I don't want to miss my train. The bus The bus come at this time. >> With less social benefits, it's easier to be wealthy in America. >> Me and my partner prefer raising our daughter in America rather than the UK. The lifestyle that you can get in
22:03 America compared to the UK is like next level. People in America, especially California, they are so positive. They want to see everybody succeed. They want to cheer their friends on. They believe they can do anything, and that mindset for me is just the best. And the pay is like five times what you would earn in
22:23 the UK. >> But social benefits gives Europeans paid time off that Americans don't get. >> Here's your very generous job offer. I have a question. Uh what does this mean? Sick days. >> Oh, that just means how many days you can be sick from work.
22:38 >> If I'm sick, I'm sick. I'm not planning to be sick. Do I not just give you a doctor's note? >> Sure, you can give us a doctor's note, but if you take more days than that, you just won't be paid. >> That is so funny. Okay, next question. Um and it says uh 10 days of vacation.
22:55 >> Yep, that's right. 10 days. It's a very generous vacation policy. >> Okay, I understand. So, it's 5 weeks plus 10 days more. >> Oh, no, you only get 10 days. >> But, there are 30 days in August, and I do not work in August. >> Um, you're expected to work in August.
23:17 >> You are hilarious. I understand. It's all a joke. $200 for health insurance. Oh my goodness. Okay, where is the real offer? >> It's not a joke. This is the real offer. >> Seriously? No, in France, we don't do this kind of This is not a real job offer. It could cause a
23:40 revolution in France. You can take this and shove it up your >> So, when Europeans visit America, they're shocked. >> Thanks so much. >> You're welcome. >> This is Montana? >> Yeah, welcome to America. You know, I
23:55 used to be little like you. >> This is crazy. >> It's stomach ache. >> [laughter] >> This is pizza. Damn, it's ground beef. Look at my and I got big hands, L sized hands.
24:11 >> That is absolutely massive. That is the size of my head. You can't get a drink this size in my country. >> But, what is this? Costco? It's even bigger than Walmart. >> We are in America for the first time as Europeans, and they have every flavor.
24:30 Every >> Look, they have big red. What's big red? Are there's a big blue as well? We don't know. >> It's a container store. >> It's just containers. >> Just containers? What, to contain stuff? >> Yeah.
24:41 >> And when Americans visit Europe, we stand out. >> believe you don't sell slices here. What am I supposed to do with a whole pizza? Everyone must be fat. You call this a pizza? Where's the grease? I can taste the vegetables. Ugh. Give me Give me a soda to wash this
24:54 down. What is this? Orange juice? Am I on a diet? Give me a Mountain Dew. And sometimes we really stand out. When my aunt accidentally drove down a pedestrian walkway in Italy and we low-key went through a restaurant. >> What are we doing?
25:10 >> Oh my god, Shane. >> Do you know where we're parking? >> Just keep going. >> How are we going to get out of here? >> I don't know. I don't [screaming] know. >> Oh no, where's the parking? Really? What do you think's better? European welfare
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