Now that the US sees the EU as a potential enemy, Europe has moved to ensure its financial system can never be sanctioned or shut down; something the US has done to Russia, Cuba, and Iran.
By late 2025,efforts centered on the Digital Euro,a nonprofit payment system run by the EuropeanCentral Bank (like euro cash). Due by 2030, it would offer lower fees and quickly replace much Visa and Mastercard usage.
While still in development,other solutions arrived sooner. Instant bank-to-bank payments, bypassing cards, are expanding rapidly.
In February, 130 million users across 13 national systems were linked in a Europe-wide networkbaiming to cover all of Europe. Fees are a fraction of Visa/Mastercard, though unlike the Digital Euro, it’s not yet available as a debit card; only online and on phones.
The EU also wants to decouple from US software and is preparing its own alternative to Microsoft Office.
Okay, yeah, there’s left and right in both places, but you at least need to realize that in Europe, even the right wing believes in things like public healthcare, education, and transit. You might still have billionaires, stagnating economic opportunities, and neoliberal politicians doubling down on austerity, but at least you still have work-life balance, PTO, and social safety nets.
Maybe those things are eroding, and maga/kremlin influence is feeding the far-right reactionary populist resurgence, but in general, European politics aren’t beholden to a two-party, first-past-the-post system where one side is far-right and the other is center-right-but-calls-itself-left because actual leftwing politics have been systematically rooted out and destroyed. Most European countries have multiple political parties, running across the entire spectrum, and have proportional representation systems.
You don’t have a dominant culture that valorizes ignorance and cruelty while disparaging empathy and understanding. You don’t have nearly as many shootings, nearly as much police brutality, you don’t have a secret police force terrorizing your most progressive cities. You don’t have bible-belt evangelicals with a deep hold on people’s minds (and wallets).
I’ve spent time in Europe, and I know things aren’t perfect, but believe me when I say they’re still worlds better than things in the US.
Appreciate what you have, and hold onto it. Fight for it if need be, and work to improve it, but don’t throw it away because it isn’t perfect. It can be much, much worse.