Europe is Superior to the U.S

I included Education in my Lifestyle rebuttal. I need not prove Europe is worse, simply that it is not objectively better.Premise I: Europe v European Countries.It must be established that this debate is about the European Continent (see R1.) Pro must understand that Europe is not the sum of it's parts here. If one nation has lower crime than the US, this does not equal Europe having a lower crime rate. Also that if one nation has a low crime rate and another has a high average income, that doesn't mean Europe has low crime and high income, as you can only live in one nation at a time. You would have to pick between them.Argument I: Opinions and RelativityWhich is better is largely opinionated. Someone might care about culture more, while I care more about politics. Someone might care more about city life, while I care more about country life. Someone might prefer 'Free' Healthcare while I prefer less taxes. I might prefer Native American historic sites over Viking historical sites. I'm conservative, Europe's Liberal. Pro's Liberal, America's Conservative.Which is better is less about what they have, and more about what the viewer wants.Argument II: EconomicsI took the Economics that relate strongly to Lifestyle and I moved them to the Lifestyle rebuttal.The US's debt is smaller than most notable European Nations. The US Debt is 71% of the economy, compared to Europe's 94%. There is also unemployment. The EU maintains an unemployment rate of 10.5% (which is 0.4% higher than last year) compared the the US's 7.3% (which is down by 0.8% from last year.) (1, 2) The EU also maintains high dependency on Foreign Oil.The US's average oil cost as of 1/12/15 (including taxes) was $2.55 a gallon. Compared to the UK's $6.26, Netherlands's $6.62, Italy's $6.60, Germany's $5.81, France's $5.75, and Belgium's $5.79... To put this in perspective, if your car holds 20 gallons, filling it up in the UK would cost you $125.20. For the same amount, you can fill that car up 2.5x in the US (3). And the UK wasn't even the most expensive. Europe gets over 50% of it's Oil from Russia, and nearly 20% from the Middle East (4). Almost none of it's oil comes from itself. The US get's 38.8% of it's Oil from it's own soil, and 73.5% of it's Oil from itself, Latin America and Canada. Only 12.9% comes from the Persia Gulf, 8.1% of which is Saudi Arabian (an ally)(5). The US has great gas prices and is mostly energy independent.When compared by GDP Per Capita, the UK (when added into the US as a state) was 50th place, with only Mississippi being below it (6). The highest a major European Nation gets is the Netherlands, halfway down the list by Missouri. Every large major nation (France, UK, Germany, Spain, etc) saw themselves well under the halfway point. Only Switzerland and Norway compared to the top 15 states, but they aren't very respresentative of Europe. Rebuttal I: LifestylePro lists off a long list of medical issues faced in the US. However, it must be stated that a medical issue being common in a nation must be intrinsic to that nation before you can claim it effects how great the nation is. Unlike crime, many medical issues are based on the person, not the nation. Obesity in the US isn't intrinsic to the US. You do not risk becoming obese by being in the US, but by how you live your life. Your risk will be equally as high no matter which continent you're on. Living in the US does not make you more prone to these issues. Drug-relate mortality, for example, is based on your choices, not your nation. Yes, the US eats more calories. This does not impact your personal experience, or make the US a worse place to live, unless you yourself choice to eat the same amount.Regarding Crimes: Crimes like rape crimes are common in European nations, where the UK, Ireland, Belgium, and Sweden have rape rates that are as much as 3x the US's (7). Pro brought up several crimes generally, like murder. It should be stated that the US's murder rate is only 1.7 per 100,000 higher than Europe. What's the relevance of this? Simply put, that isn't a lot. This is small enough to deem both areas near equally safe, in a world were the average homicide rate is around 7 per 100,000 (8). The point is that both are too small to be held empirical. The quality of one's life simply isn't impacted by such a small different.As for crime in general... Pro greatly loses out on this area. Here is the average (rounded) violent crime rates per 1,000,000: (9)USA - 350Europe - 590The USA has almost half the violent crime rate as Europe. But crime isn't the only topic. There is also economics. The US has an average wage of $44,753. This is higher than every European nation. The second highest was Ireland, which was $6,000 beneath the US. It must be stated that this is spendable pay (taking out taxes.) The US was still on top before taxes, and after taxes the gap widened greatly. The Average of the top 15 European Nations is $26,300 (lower if you include all of them) (10). The Average Medium Income of the US is 30,932. The average for Europe is $20,870 (11). The GDP per Capita of the US is $53,000, while the European Union's is $34,000 (12). The US has a Gross National Income of $16.9 million, compared to Europe's highest... Germany, at $3.7 million (13).There is also the matter of taxes and cost of living. The US has a Cost of Living rate of 76.53% (100% being the cost of living in New York City.) Of the 23 nations worse the US, 14 were European. Generally, Europe's average Cost of Living was 83%. If you only include Western Europe (notably the best of Europe), it's around 90%. Of the only 5 nations with 100+ Cost of Living, 4 are European (14). As for taxes, Europe is known for high tax rates, but here's the information. The US's taxes nearly 26% of the economy, compared to Europe's 38%. The highest 8 European Nations is over 40%. No European nation was below the US (15). With such expansive costs of living and oil prices, with such lower wages, Europe is an economically terrible place to live compared to the US.Education is a poor topic to bring up because it's never right. Comparing Education Systems is impossible because every nation follows a different system. One nation might have better students than another nation when compared using their standards, but do worse when compared using the other nations standard. One such issue can be seen in Graduation Rates, where the ACE explains that comparing nation's education (in this case, Graduation Rates) is impossible because of factors like acceptance policies and economics. As well as if the students are foreign or domestic (18)Rebuttal II: CultureFrom New York to California, you'll find the same amount of culture as you would in Europe. Only one European nation outranks the US in Tourism, that being France. It only does so by 20% (16). Why is this such a big ordeal? Free Travel. It costs money to enter the US. Using Priceline to find a single adult ticket from New York to Paris and back, the price for the poorest coach ranged from $800 - $1650. Given these limitations, the US is comparing outstandingly to Europe, where going from anywhere to France is a few gallons a gas.The US owns the world's movie industry, with 35 of the top 50 top grossing films of all time being US-Made (17). Of the remaining 15, they are mostly split between Harry Potter and LoTR. The US also owns much of the book industry. The US is responsible for literally half of the top 84 best selling authors of all time (18). The US also created: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Star Wars. Bugs Bunny. Loony Toons. Superman, Spiderman, Batman, almost every other Superhero, as well as Supernatural, MASH, FRIENDS, I Love Lucy, and numerous other classics.What this comes down to, however, is my Argument I: Relative Opinion.Rebuttal III: FreedomPro makes several fallacious statements here. Her first is comparing liberal policy as being better (freer) policy. A conservative would greatly argue against that. Liberalism is not freer or better policy by default. Pro must prove it's better. Pro then brings up individual cases. Abortion, Drug Use, and Prostitution, as examples. These are highly controversial, especially Abortion.By stating all this as her opening, she indirectly concedes to the US being better politically to every Conservative reading the debate.As for Freedom, how do you rate that? Liberals and Conservatives both think their system is the path to freedom. Literally. They both think the other is the path to slavery. Their ideas of independence is different. Conservatives believes Independence and Freedom is being able to do something yourself. Liberals believes it's being freed of costs and debts.But there are some real measurements. Europe has an Economic Freedom score of 67% compared to the US's 75%. Europe's Freedom from Corruption ranking is 55% compared to the US's 72%. Europe's Property Rights are 61% compared to the US's 80%. Europe's Labor Freedom is 62% compared to the US's 97%. Europe's Business Freedom is 78% compared to the US's 89% (19, 20)Pro brought this up as a political issue. I'm taking it into actual policy. Europe is plagued by a PC era where saying the wrong thing can land you a fine. Most European nations have a policy against "hate speech." This policy has costed people for simply saying something that offended another person. People can even be arrested for 'hate speech.' Hate speech is largely dependent on the person's definition of what counts as hate, leading bad and abused interpretations. A priest was arrested in the UK for quoting a line of of sins from the Bible, when he listed homosexuality (21). Conclusion:Whether you believe Europe is better is a matter of opinion. While they average below the US in Economic Freedom, have terrible policies for a Conservative, high taxes and a poorer economy, as well as a higher violent crime rate.Europe is not better than the US. Equal or worse, but not better.Sources: http://tny.cz...