Elke Zimmermann (#B96begradigen🌈✊🦄💚🇪🇺)

Hi, I’m from Poland, and I recently read in the US National Security Strategy about Europe’s supposed “civilizational erasure.” So I’d like to tell you a bit about European civilization. 🇪🇺We have a more modest GDP, yet we still run a trade surplus with the United States, employ 2.5 times more industrial workers, have a higher export share in GDP, and maintain lower income inequality. 🇪🇺We don’t have a heavily privatized healthcare system, yet our life expectancy at birth is about three years higher, and infant mortality is nearly half that of the US. 🇪🇺We don’t have universal and unconditional access to firearms, yet European cities are far safer: we have clearly lower rates of homicide, violent crime, and car theft. 🇪🇺We don’t design our entire spatial order around a single mode of transport; instead, we build transport systems with a strong role for public transit, including rail. 🇪🇺We don’t have tech giants pumping up stock-market valuations, but we do equip ordinary workers with things like paid monthly vacations, paid sick leave, paid parental leave, and contracts that prevent sudden dismissal. So let’s ask ourselves: which of these things truly reflects the kind of civilization we want to pursue? PS In the photo I’m sitting and waiting for some delicious food, did I mention that Europe is superior in this as well, because we have regulations that limit the use of harmful food additives?