solarpunk memes

I get that you're being flippant, but they also have more freedom to make way more money, say what they want even if they're assholes, protect themselves when they live out in the country, do what they want with their land, start a business with less regulation, etc. You could also just as easily say Europeans are free to have more than half their income seized to pay for other people's benefits, free to be thrown in jail for saying something mean about someone, etc.

I might agree with your specific points, but I think it's important to emphasize to anyone who blindly reads your post and is like "Yeah!!! America sux!" that there are unquestionably costs and benefits to both systems, and just because you value one more than the other doesn't make the other one wrong, it makes it different. If you think one is "right" and one is "wrong", I can guarantee you haven't fully examined the pros and cons. (As an aside, there are also tons of issues in America and Europe that make them good or bad places to live that are unrelated to this philosophical problem of what constitutes freedom.)

But there will always be people who value more freedom (freedom to) over more protection (freedom from) and vice versa. At one extreme, you have anarchy and the Purge everyday, at the other: living in a prison. Finding the right balance between safety and freedom is an ancient problem, and recognizing that the OP clearly thinks only their definition is the "right" one on a multivariate scale with many different equilibriums is the epitome of "Wake up sheeple" and assuming anyone who has different values than you is a rube.

In any event, attributing any of it to capitalism is just wrong.