It is worth noting that no other Western country had chattel slavery as late as the US.  The European ones either never had large scale chattel slavery or had it replaced by serfdom centuries earlier.  Since serfs were considered to have some rights, this meant improved conditions.  As mentioned before Canada had chattel slavery abolished in 1834.  Australia and New Zealand certainly never had large-scale chattel slavery.  This might contribute to the cultures of both Aussies and Kiwis having tall poppy syndrome.

By the middle of the 19th century no other Western countries any had positions comparable to American slave plantation owners.  So when early Socialists proposed the idea of conflicting goals employers were already open to the possibility of employees having a different point of view.  Employers saw the point of improving the living conditions for their employees.  This also allowed the development of strong labour unions from which Labour parties arose.

Over the generations these Labour parties and the labour unions they emerged from has improved the situation for employees even more.  People in other Western countries generally have higher incomes, better working conditions and longer vacations than their equivalents in the US.  I suspect a lot of Americans don’t see this possibility.  They know too little about other countries to be able to tell.

Another result was the near absence of forced segregation based on known biological ancestry.  Some Canadian provinces did have segregation of the unquestionably white from all others until 1965.  But it had been introduced later than in the US and was as such more short-lived.  I think most or all can be explained by immigration from the US.  While Britain has had some segregation it was never legally enforced.  The Australian government ignored the few non-whites rather than forcibly segregated them.  New Zeeland was actually founded by a treaty with indigenous chiefs.  This means the Maori were treated better than many other indigenous peoples.  Other Western countries did not have any significant number of non-whites until the late 19th century or later.  This meant they were long considered funny foreigners more than anything else.

Some Americans would probably object that other Western countries are Socialist.  This confuses Socialism with Communism which is an extreme sub-group.  The only unquestionably Western countries ever ruled by Communists were Czechoslovakia, East Germany and Poland.  All of these Communist regimes fell in 1989.  Less than four years later Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved into Czechia and Slovakia.  Also, less than a year after the fall of their Communist regime East Germany reunited with West Germany.  Curiously, one particular labour union played an important part in ending Communist rule of Poland.  This is just one reason the Communist regimes did not create the “worker’s paradise” they claimed to.

Uploaded on the 26th of September 2026.