I’m not here to lecture Americans about becoming Europeans. I’m here to say: Look at what’s possible. Living in the Philippines now, after seeing other systems up close, I know there’s no magic solution — but there are better ideas worth stealing.

Housing? The Netherlands doesn’t pretend the market will fix everything. Tenant unions and housing cooperatives organize to keep rents sane and landlords accountable (Dutch Ministry of the Interior, 2025). Americans can do this too, if they stop fighting alone and start fighting together.

Healthcare? Europe treats it as a right. No one gets a bill that ruins them. It’s not charity — it’s solidarity. Americans have the wealth to do it. They just need the will to tell billion-dollar insurers to go to hell (OECD, 2024).

Labor? European workers know the value of unions. They don’t apologize for striking. They don’t let bosses convince them that asking for fair pay is treason (European Trade Union Institute, 2025). American workers once had that backbone. They can again.

But let’s be clear: this isn’t just America’s problem. This is Europe’s problem too. Because when the U.S. collapses under its own fascist rot, the shockwaves won’t stop at the Atlantic.

Europe — wake the hell up. The same fascism you fought 80 years ago is back. It’s wearing suits and waving flags, but it’s the same sickness. And it’s taking power at the heart of “the West.”

Don’t act smug about American dysfunction while you buy U.S. tech, arms, and investment. Don’t pretend it’s “their mess.” It’s your mess too if you let democracy rot from its most powerful center.

You want to help? Then don’t just share memes about Trump. Support the Americans fighting him. Not the corporate Democrats who sold us out, but the union organizers, tenant activists, indie journalists, teachers, nurses, the ones busting their asses to save something decent.

Push your own governments to stop enabling American corruption. Build international alliances for labor, housing, climate, justice. Demand sanctions on oligarchs funding fascism everywhere — not just in Russia, but in the U.S. too.

Because if you don’t help us fight them in the USA, you will be fighting them in the EU, one way or the other.

I’m not writing this because I hate America. I’m writing it because I love what it was supposed to be. Because I’m a firebrand in the spirit of 1776, and I’ll be damned if I watch it burn to the ground without screaming for someone to stop it. It breaks my heart every day to see what it’s become. But that’s exactly why I won’t look away.

References:

Dutch Ministry of the Interior. (2025). Housing Cooperatives Report. https://www.government.nl/topics/housing
OECD. (2024). Health at a Glance 2024. https://www.oecd.org/health/health-at-a-glance/
European Trade Union Institute. (2025). Collective Bargaining in Europe. https://www.etui.org/publications/collective-bargaining-in-europe
Potts, C. (2011). Conspirators, Confederates, and Christians: Occupy Wall Street Edition. Lulu Press.