US vs European way of life

Question

For those of you who have had experiences living in both the United States and Europe(Western Europe), what would you say are the main differences or similarities in the way of life? Which did you prefer? did you have a chance to work in both cultures?

Answer 1

Europe is generally much more liberal with more socialist ideas. Religion isn't a big part of most peoples lives, and morals are often based on whether something causes harm or not, rather than what has traditionally been seen as right or wrong for arbitrary reasons.

The attitude to work is very different. Employees generally have much greater freedoms and rights. In general there's more of a community feel; a belief that to make great things happen people need to support each other rather than compete with each other.

Landscape wise, the entire feel to Europe is so much different. Walking around many towns in Europe is nothing like anything you see in America. Everything's much busier, more compact, less planned and has a "quality" feel that America just doesn't have.

I prefer European life to either British or American life.

Answer 2

Well, you're talking countries that have BUILDINGS older than the USA, so they tend to take the long view.  For instance, I saw a company on a website that has been in business since 882 AD.  That's got to give you a different perspective than you'd find in a dotcom company.

Europe is more sexually laid back - they got RID of the Puritans ( sent them to America).

It's more cosmopolitan - there's a mish-mash of cultures and races there that have been intermingling for more than a thousand years.  Racism isn't a big deal - their problems are more of a culture-clash type.

And I would venture to say that Europe is building for the future where the US seems stuck in a time-loop - you guys keep harping about how things used to be instead of dealing with how they are or looking towards how they should be.

A broader political spectrum - rare is the country that has only 2 parties.

The continent uses much more environmentally friendly processes - wind and solar power are very big there ( but the US can catch up quickly) and their train system is amazing.