“In most of Europe — Scandinavia, core Europe, whether Germany, France, or Holland, even in countries that have been historical laggards, like Spain, people now enjoy the highest living standards in human history, ever, period. Even Italians — maligned as the caricatures of misgovernance — live half a decade longer than Americans. Europeans live longer, better, richer, saner, healthier, fuller lives — than Americans, than the rest of the world, compared to what might have been expected just a few short decades ago, when those very countries lay in ruins, and most importantly. In the eyes of history, Europe is something like human society’s most improbable but greatest success.”
