Because those same cosmopolitans fetishize Europe--oh, the trains I took while on study abroad!--and fantasize about moving there (but almost never do).

The reality? UK's GDP per capita is about that of Mississippi. Europe is less unequal, but also far less wealthy. https://twitter.com/mattyglesias/status/1248794007112646656

Conversely, American poor likely don't realize how much worse they have it vs. comparable Europeans. The irony is that those relatively worse off whose lives *would * improve by moving to Europe don't fetishize it, while those whose lives *wouldn't* improve, do.

The mystery here is why Americans don't emigrate, almost ever. You meet few American emigrants (or 'expats' if they're white collar) abroad. It's like citizens of an immigrant country refuse to become immigrants again, making their last stand in their adopted, invented homeland.

For the record, I've emigrated. Most recently in Jan 2015 when I sold everything and moved to Barcelona followed by Berlin, to work on a book and pursue what I thought would be a second life after getting ostracized from the US tech sector. I moved back by end of year.

Europe has its charms. An American urban middle-class professional will work themselves to the bone to afford things like housing, education, and access to high culture that an analogous European would mostly take for granted.

But did I tell you what my UK book deal was vs. my American one?

Americans make the arguably irrational choice for unequal individual success, also placing a huge premium on choice in all things: tipping instead of flat service fees, PPO health plans instead of managed care.

Of course, Europe isn't in a stable equilibrium. They live under an American military order they don't pay for but profit from. I don't know how much of Europe's charm survives when it's European navies keeping the Strait of Hormuz open (which they need more than us).

Coming from Europe, America feels like a Brazil-esque developing country, but with Google and Hollywood and Wall Street amidst the favelas.

Coming from America, Europe feels like a retirement home inside a museum behind an American tank (and they resent the tank).