I look at the headway various countries in the eurozone have made on topics from socialized medicine, to universal basic income, to free postsecondary education, to the protection of personal data, and even to forcing Apple to change its charging cable

I think the socialized medicine and socialized postsecondary education are the biggest advantages indeed.

This comes at the cost of way lower wages, and smaller wage diffrrences. An educated engineer's take home pay is maybe 1.2 times that of a factory worker. Resulting in very little people actually persuing STEM.

Combine that with the deindustrialization that's going on in the EU, as it can't compete with Asia, we will have to see how long it lasts. Lots of uneducated (even as education costs are socialized, most don't persue it) are already without a job, and the number keeps growing.

It's a trade-off, on which I can understand your point of view, as to how it benefits individuals in the short and mid-long term.

Universal basic income does, to my knowledge, not exist in the EU.

from anti-vaxx and anti-mask movements

Those were/are popular here, too.

There's likely a "grass is greener" going on, for the both of us, indeed :)

I mainly look at the lack of innovation happening in EU. Missed the whole of tech, machine learning, no innovative industry, no fintech, little to no biotech as GMOs are outlawed. Only farma is doing well. It's a terrible restrictive place if you've an inquisitive mind.