I think Noah has been clear eyed about the very serious problems facing the UK. I haven't seen his criticism as condescending as much as lightly joking. Joking which belies the fact the UK is headed down a very dark road.
I think, from my time spent in Europe and from my European friends here in the States, that many Europeans feel the US is a bigger version of Europe that has betrayed them. After WWII they felt the US was their sort of big brother they could count on and now - that's gone away.
This view betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the US. We are Americans, not Europeans. Yes, many of us are of European extraction but this country was founded in direct opposition to many of the bases of European thought - monarchy and theocracy amongst them. The founders detested so much about Europe and maybe that is now rising again in the US. I know I feel American even though my DNA is 99.7% European. I enjoy my visits to Europe but miss the US and feel our life here is in many ways far more satisfying than are those of many Europeans. I also deeply dislike, as Noah experienced, the lecturing and hectoring you hear from a certain class of Europeans and I don't think Americans, like our current VP, should be engaging in the reverse either.
It's definitely healthy that Europe is learning to stand on its own two feet. I don't think the US needed to bear the burden of Europe's defense for so many decades when Europeans were capable of bearing that cost themselves. And I also believe our security interests are for the most part deeply intertwined. But Europeans need to rid themselves of the smug, smarmy attitude Noah talks about in this piece. As he pointed out - it does no one any good, it's vastly out-of-date and it just makes them look like assholes.
If you want to see what Noah is talking about, go to the r/AskanAmerican subreddit. You will see Europeans, Britons, Canadians, and Australians using it as a soapbox to air (under the guise of asking a question) the goofiest, most condescending nonsense about the United States. Like that every American lives in a tyrannical HOA that can seize their house at a moment's notice, that we only have Kraft cheese, or that Americans pay $30,000 every time we get treatment for a sprained ankle. It's not helped by the fact that, due to the overexposure of American popular culture, Europeans, Britons, Canadians, and Australians tend to have a false sense of expertise about the United States and an ardent belief that we're too stupid to understand that if we just pass a law that MyCountry has, we'll solve this problem that makes our country a their obvious moral inferior.
Europe sure has problems but an American writing about all of the problems that Europe has seems a little bit tone deaf right now. Americope? Noah if you were say Australian it would hit a bit harder.
Would love to see Noah do a take on Australia. Having lived in all I can assure you in genuinely shits all over both Europe and the US. Even if wild rabbits are treated as vermin.
Actually hardly anyone works in mining, it is heavily automated. Dependence on resource exports is a weakness, that’s true, but for now seems sustainable due to significant low cost advantages of proximity to Asia and very large and effective investments in automation
Oh, I see. GDP per capita looks to closely track resource export earnings actually on the two charts here: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/03/australia-has-blown-its-extraordinary-resource-wealth/ (Ignore the anti-establishment tirade which I don't necessarily agree with as Australia and Norway can't really be compared like that.) Resource nationalism is expected to give the sector another lift right when it looked like China’s property downturn had sucked the air out of commodity demand.
I find it funny that Australian commentators and Australians are all so negative about their economy when if you compare across countries, it does so well... albeit I can't quite figure out why. Is 27 million people really enough for a sizeable self-contained domestic economy?
"The reason America still has higher inequality than Europe is mostly due to “predistribution” — basically, pretax wage inequality"
I think that goes a long way toward explaining our superior economic performance - America will pay top dollar for talent and other counties simply won't.
Here's an example of that - a medical oncologist in the UK, based in London, with 15 years of experience can expect to make around £250k a year. In the US the same, based in LA, can expect to be paid around $600-700k a year. It's a wonder the US doesn't open its doors and brain drain the UK because if we wanted to we could do it in a year.
Thank you Noah. As a "vague conservative" I agree.
High marginal tax rates on individual incomes, coupled with very low income thresholds in Europe, result in the striving middle class unable to build wealth, in fact to obtain much of a dream of a better future.
European governments are sophisticated, and have discovered how to extract the most money from individual productive citizens as possible. Without totally killing entrepreneur spirits. The upwardly mobile middle classes are royally screwed, to support copious social welfare largess.
European governments are sophisticated. Again yes. But you can't forever defy human nature. Penalize the hardworking middle class to support people who contribute little or nothing to society, or to civilization.
Please don't believe the middle class is a willing victim. More than a few young and intelligent Europeans will wake up, and refuse to endorse schemes like "triple lock" in the UK. Sooner or later, they will decide against European over-the-top social schemes.
Let's review what has happened in the last year: threats to American democracy, the fact that the current government is actively threatening to invade a European country, the president not believing in man-made climate change. I could go on. It is just a bit much right now. So some is definitely to cope with the situation.
I agree it is better to focus on one's own problems, but hitting out at America can serve the following functions: (1) let it be a warning to not become such a country (no democracy, imperialist, no concerns for climate change, etc) If you want to avoid to become such a country, you can point to a country where it has happened (2) increase European unity. Along the lines of "if we don't stick together, our way of life will not survive."
But yeah, other than that you raise many good points.
PS: Does Ireland consider itself an ally of the US? Given it is not part of NATO.
To be clear, the US is currently spending billions of dollars helping Europe defend itself from an invasion while other European countries continue to buy gas from the country currently invading Europe.
The US shares high level intelligence with Ireland but I have a feeling once Sinn Féin takes over that will be cut down to a weekly airmailed copy of The Economist.
Noah raises good points, but neither will bring condescending towards Britain (a pastime of Noah's) help fix America's problems.
I think Noah has been clear eyed about the very serious problems facing the UK. I haven't seen his criticism as condescending as much as lightly joking. Joking which belies the fact the UK is headed down a very dark road.
Not on his blog but on his Twitter feed he can be condescending.
I think, from my time spent in Europe and from my European friends here in the States, that many Europeans feel the US is a bigger version of Europe that has betrayed them. After WWII they felt the US was their sort of big brother they could count on and now - that's gone away.
This view betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the US. We are Americans, not Europeans. Yes, many of us are of European extraction but this country was founded in direct opposition to many of the bases of European thought - monarchy and theocracy amongst them. The founders detested so much about Europe and maybe that is now rising again in the US. I know I feel American even though my DNA is 99.7% European. I enjoy my visits to Europe but miss the US and feel our life here is in many ways far more satisfying than are those of many Europeans. I also deeply dislike, as Noah experienced, the lecturing and hectoring you hear from a certain class of Europeans and I don't think Americans, like our current VP, should be engaging in the reverse either.
It's definitely healthy that Europe is learning to stand on its own two feet. I don't think the US needed to bear the burden of Europe's defense for so many decades when Europeans were capable of bearing that cost themselves. And I also believe our security interests are for the most part deeply intertwined. But Europeans need to rid themselves of the smug, smarmy attitude Noah talks about in this piece. As he pointed out - it does no one any good, it's vastly out-of-date and it just makes them look like assholes.
If you want to see what Noah is talking about, go to the r/AskanAmerican subreddit. You will see Europeans, Britons, Canadians, and Australians using it as a soapbox to air (under the guise of asking a question) the goofiest, most condescending nonsense about the United States. Like that every American lives in a tyrannical HOA that can seize their house at a moment's notice, that we only have Kraft cheese, or that Americans pay $30,000 every time we get treatment for a sprained ankle. It's not helped by the fact that, due to the overexposure of American popular culture, Europeans, Britons, Canadians, and Australians tend to have a false sense of expertise about the United States and an ardent belief that we're too stupid to understand that if we just pass a law that MyCountry has, we'll solve this problem that makes our country a their obvious moral inferior.
I wonder how much the higher cost of healthcare in the U.S. distorts the redistribution graph. Something feels “off” about it.
Europe sure has problems but an American writing about all of the problems that Europe has seems a little bit tone deaf right now. Americope? Noah if you were say Australian it would hit a bit harder.
His point is that the criticisms are false or incomplete. Which of his criticisms of Europe did you find false or incomplete?
Noah has a habit of being condescending towards the UK on his Twitter feed, just as Europeans can be towards Americans.
It's Twitter tho
Textbook ad hominem argument. It's certainly easier to dismiss arguments because of their origins rather than trying to address their substance.
Would love to see Noah do a take on Australia. Having lived in all I can assure you in genuinely shits all over both Europe and the US. Even if wild rabbits are treated as vermin.
Why, I wonder. High tax and an economy mostly dependent on FIFO workers (basically, resources via mining) shouldn’t have such steady growth.
Also, Australia is a low to middle tax country in terms of OECD, nowhere near as high as most of Europe
Actually hardly anyone works in mining, it is heavily automated. Dependence on resource exports is a weakness, that’s true, but for now seems sustainable due to significant low cost advantages of proximity to Asia and very large and effective investments in automation
Oh, I see. GDP per capita looks to closely track resource export earnings actually on the two charts here: https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2025/03/australia-has-blown-its-extraordinary-resource-wealth/ (Ignore the anti-establishment tirade which I don't necessarily agree with as Australia and Norway can't really be compared like that.) Resource nationalism is expected to give the sector another lift right when it looked like China’s property downturn had sucked the air out of commodity demand.
I find it funny that Australian commentators and Australians are all so negative about their economy when if you compare across countries, it does so well... albeit I can't quite figure out why. Is 27 million people really enough for a sizeable self-contained domestic economy?
Why? Especially given he raises good points about Europe's problems. He could spend his time doing other things.
"The reason America still has higher inequality than Europe is mostly due to “predistribution” — basically, pretax wage inequality"
I think that goes a long way toward explaining our superior economic performance - America will pay top dollar for talent and other counties simply won't.
Here's an example of that - a medical oncologist in the UK, based in London, with 15 years of experience can expect to make around £250k a year. In the US the same, based in LA, can expect to be paid around $600-700k a year. It's a wonder the US doesn't open its doors and brain drain the UK because if we wanted to we could do it in a year.
Having lived a couple of years in both sides of the Atlantic I concur with your take Noah.
Plus we now have excellent food and beer.
Comparing anything is just air. It has zero force.
Doing is exerting energy to move something.
Ya can sit in a car stuck in the mud, and yell at each other about would shoulda had a 4 wheel vehicle, or get out and push it!!
As the famous philosopher said-
Do or Do Not. There is No Try.
Thank you Noah. As a "vague conservative" I agree.
High marginal tax rates on individual incomes, coupled with very low income thresholds in Europe, result in the striving middle class unable to build wealth, in fact to obtain much of a dream of a better future.
European governments are sophisticated, and have discovered how to extract the most money from individual productive citizens as possible. Without totally killing entrepreneur spirits. The upwardly mobile middle classes are royally screwed, to support copious social welfare largess.
European governments are sophisticated. Again yes. But you can't forever defy human nature. Penalize the hardworking middle class to support people who contribute little or nothing to society, or to civilization.
Please don't believe the middle class is a willing victim. More than a few young and intelligent Europeans will wake up, and refuse to endorse schemes like "triple lock" in the UK. Sooner or later, they will decide against European over-the-top social schemes.
Let's review what has happened in the last year: threats to American democracy, the fact that the current government is actively threatening to invade a European country, the president not believing in man-made climate change. I could go on. It is just a bit much right now. So some is definitely to cope with the situation.
I agree it is better to focus on one's own problems, but hitting out at America can serve the following functions: (1) let it be a warning to not become such a country (no democracy, imperialist, no concerns for climate change, etc) If you want to avoid to become such a country, you can point to a country where it has happened (2) increase European unity. Along the lines of "if we don't stick together, our way of life will not survive."
But yeah, other than that you raise many good points.
PS: Does Ireland consider itself an ally of the US? Given it is not part of NATO.
To be clear, the US is currently spending billions of dollars helping Europe defend itself from an invasion while other European countries continue to buy gas from the country currently invading Europe.
Yeah, Noah seems quite harsh when it comes to Trumps position on Ukraine. Afaik USA still gives monetary and military support.
The US shares high level intelligence with Ireland but I have a feeling once Sinn Féin takes over that will be cut down to a weekly airmailed copy of The Economist.
Okay the bat and parking lot thing I agree with. Bats are awesome.