Zappo
Explorer
If I lived in the USA and didn't speak Italian, I would consider learning it and moving to Italy just for the food. I've been living in the UK for four months and I'm slowly going insane, and from what I hear the USA are even worse. 
Plus, we've got good climate, more art than you can see in a couple of lifetimes, and a chaotic good national alignment. If a law is stupid, people just ignore it.
More seriously (I confirm all of the above, but the Italian job market is currently terrible), I'll try to express you the way I feel about living in Europe; I think that could be closer to what you're looking for. I'll try hard to steer clear of judgements and politics. Keep in mind that I live in Italy, but I've also lived for 4 months now in England, and I've been in holiday everywhere around Europe.
In Europe as a general rule you should expect higher taxes and stricter regulations on businesses. Nothing nightmarish, though. The upside is much better welfare - good free health service, good and cheap public education (in Italy public schools and universities are top-notch; people who go to private usually do so because they're easier), lots of social protections (it's relatively difficult to suddenly find yourself in a state of poverty), guaranteed retirement money, that sort of stuff. Do you read Something Positive? Davan's job probably doesn't even exist here.
Now, lots of americans I've talked with don't like this. It's a philosophical thing, can't debate it here, but that's how it works here. Most people here consider it a very good deal since we believe that health and education are fundamental rights of everyone, and from what I can see the standard of living for the middle and middle-upper class is just the same as the USA. I think the very rich, especially people with medium to large businesses, are better off in the USA. Then again, rich people are well-off anywhere, that's why they are called rich. Poor people are definitely better off here.
So, freedom for businesses is restricted when compared to the USA. As for personal freedoms, I think we are better off; I speak for Italy but I think the general attitude is similar throughout Europe. Your Deck of Many Things or NIN examples would probably cause a minor uproar; police forces have to tread carefully when it comes to ideological topics. Those episodes just don't happen. Kids generally don't get indoctrinated in school, neither to religion nor to patriotism; no hymns or prayers. The part regarding patriotism is especially true in Italy - after fascism, we really, really don't want to be told to love the country and support the government. We've had enough of it for about a billion years. I'm two generations removed, and I still feel white hot rage at the idea of forcing kids to sing the national anthem. It would probably cause a small revolt. We believe that love of your country is something good but that must not be imposed, not even by simple peer pressure, let alone by regulation.
Going to jail is a lot harder. You need to do something very serious, or keep doing something stupid repeatedly; otherwise, you'll probably get some community service, a fine, or get restricted to your city for a while.
Gas costs, uhm, about one euro per liter in Italy? Could be a bit off here. Definitely much more than the USA. But it's not a big problem: remember that wherever you go, it will be a country a couple of orders of magnitude smaller than the USA. The best proof of this is that in Italy, despite the cost of gas, we've got almost one car per person on average!
There is a bit of antiamericanism going on, but it isn't nearly as big as the media say. Lots of people are more or less annoyed at the USA as a nation, but virtually noone extends this to americans as people. No problem here.
Corruption... meh, I live in Italy. I understand that the rest of Europe is better in this regard. We're slowly getting out of it, though. Can't be more detailed without pulling politics in.
Publishing: I don't know anything about this in Europe, but my mother is starting a small publishing company in her spare time, so it can't be too bad. Don't expect to make big money out of it, but that's true everywhere. Small press doesn't get you rich (heck, even big press is considered a risky investment).
You can own a gun, but it's not nearly as easy as in the USA and they are heavily regulated. We don't like to have our freedoms restricted for little gain, but in the case of firearms, we consider it to be a very irrelevant restriction (you can get one if you really want to) and a very good gain. Consider that not only I don't know anyone at all who owns a firearm, except for a single friend who is a hunter and has some hunting rifles, but I don't even know anyone who would get a firearm if the regulations were relaxed.
No legal weed though. Oh well, it's the same everywhere save Netherlands, I can't complain too much. You can get illegal weed easy though, and the "very hard to go to jail" rule applies. I don't know what you get for possessing small amounts of it, but I'm positive that it's not a big deal.
Do I feel free? Well, yes. Oh, yes. Whatever I may want to do that doesn't hurt another, not only it's legal, but it's usually also socially acceptable. From what I read around the 'net, this isn't always the case in the USA. Playing RPGs in the 80s, for example. I feel I'm better off here.
Hope this helps.
Plus, we've got good climate, more art than you can see in a couple of lifetimes, and a chaotic good national alignment. If a law is stupid, people just ignore it.
More seriously (I confirm all of the above, but the Italian job market is currently terrible), I'll try to express you the way I feel about living in Europe; I think that could be closer to what you're looking for. I'll try hard to steer clear of judgements and politics. Keep in mind that I live in Italy, but I've also lived for 4 months now in England, and I've been in holiday everywhere around Europe.
In Europe as a general rule you should expect higher taxes and stricter regulations on businesses. Nothing nightmarish, though. The upside is much better welfare - good free health service, good and cheap public education (in Italy public schools and universities are top-notch; people who go to private usually do so because they're easier), lots of social protections (it's relatively difficult to suddenly find yourself in a state of poverty), guaranteed retirement money, that sort of stuff. Do you read Something Positive? Davan's job probably doesn't even exist here.
Now, lots of americans I've talked with don't like this. It's a philosophical thing, can't debate it here, but that's how it works here. Most people here consider it a very good deal since we believe that health and education are fundamental rights of everyone, and from what I can see the standard of living for the middle and middle-upper class is just the same as the USA. I think the very rich, especially people with medium to large businesses, are better off in the USA. Then again, rich people are well-off anywhere, that's why they are called rich.
Poor people are definitely better off here.So, freedom for businesses is restricted when compared to the USA. As for personal freedoms, I think we are better off; I speak for Italy but I think the general attitude is similar throughout Europe. Your Deck of Many Things or NIN examples would probably cause a minor uproar; police forces have to tread carefully when it comes to ideological topics. Those episodes just don't happen. Kids generally don't get indoctrinated in school, neither to religion nor to patriotism; no hymns or prayers. The part regarding patriotism is especially true in Italy - after fascism, we really, really don't want to be told to love the country and support the government. We've had enough of it for about a billion years. I'm two generations removed, and I still feel white hot rage at the idea of forcing kids to sing the national anthem. It would probably cause a small revolt. We believe that love of your country is something good but that must not be imposed, not even by simple peer pressure, let alone by regulation.
Going to jail is a lot harder. You need to do something very serious, or keep doing something stupid repeatedly; otherwise, you'll probably get some community service, a fine, or get restricted to your city for a while.
Gas costs, uhm, about one euro per liter in Italy? Could be a bit off here. Definitely much more than the USA. But it's not a big problem: remember that wherever you go, it will be a country a couple of orders of magnitude smaller than the USA. The best proof of this is that in Italy, despite the cost of gas, we've got almost one car per person on average!
There is a bit of antiamericanism going on, but it isn't nearly as big as the media say. Lots of people are more or less annoyed at the USA as a nation, but virtually noone extends this to americans as people. No problem here.
Corruption... meh, I live in Italy. I understand that the rest of Europe is better in this regard.
We're slowly getting out of it, though. Can't be more detailed without pulling politics in.Publishing: I don't know anything about this in Europe, but my mother is starting a small publishing company in her spare time, so it can't be too bad. Don't expect to make big money out of it, but that's true everywhere. Small press doesn't get you rich (heck, even big press is considered a risky investment).
You can own a gun, but it's not nearly as easy as in the USA and they are heavily regulated. We don't like to have our freedoms restricted for little gain, but in the case of firearms, we consider it to be a very irrelevant restriction (you can get one if you really want to) and a very good gain. Consider that not only I don't know anyone at all who owns a firearm, except for a single friend who is a hunter and has some hunting rifles, but I don't even know anyone who would get a firearm if the regulations were relaxed.
No legal weed though. Oh well, it's the same everywhere save Netherlands, I can't complain too much. You can get illegal weed easy though, and the "very hard to go to jail" rule applies. I don't know what you get for possessing small amounts of it, but I'm positive that it's not a big deal.
Do I feel free? Well, yes. Oh, yes. Whatever I may want to do that doesn't hurt another, not only it's legal, but it's usually also socially acceptable. From what I read around the 'net, this isn't always the case in the USA. Playing RPGs in the 80s, for example. I feel I'm better off here.
Hope this helps.
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