You can also find some North Koreans who are happier than some Europeans. And being a rich foreigner is fun, regardless of where you move to. You're the first against the wall, if things go to pot, tho. YMMV.

The EU has significantly fewer deaths of despair and suicides, much lower murder rates, and longer life expectancy, than Russia. We live, on average, over a decade longer. Those are the most-difficult statistics to fake and the least-open to interpretation. Happier, healthier people live longer and are less-likely to kill themselves or each other.

You can also go onto any social media, including Nostr, and it is full of people in the EU, complaining about the EU. That is because you can complain about the EU without ending up in a gulag. In fact, we do not have a gulag. We don't even have a word for "gulag".

But, I think, one of the most telling statistics of human freedom and thriving is actually this one: