I like how you put "unemployed" in quotes. I think many unemployed people would love to also have the quotes. The person you replied to referred I think to actual no-quotes unemployed, not the "building my startup" type of unemployed.
No, look, Europe is almost caste-based in how rigid the social hierarchies have become due to the immensity of the social-welfare programs. They'll keep you alive and comfortable but you'll never have the autonomy of the ultra-wealthy who galavant around Vienna and drive fancy cars and fly all over the world. Let me tell you something: its better to have good public education, good public healthcare, and good public infrastructure than to drive a fancy car. Still, you feel like you're not truly free, because you aren't really. But Americans aren't more free than you either, even if they appear to you to be. You're just looking in the wrong place for your freedom.
I know very well what kind of problems the US has, but I think a lot of US people have a very naïve view of Europe ("ah they just solved X, Y, Z there") when in reality nothing comes for free (and I don't mean money). Similarly, a lot of europeans have a very naïve view of Europe as well, pretty much by the same argument. They just do not realize the difference for the median person in the standard of living, they always concentrate on the same old tropes -- "but what about the poor, what about public transport, what about healthcare". Yeah, what about them? And what about the not-so-poor? Why is it that just mentioning these things, that allegedly Europe does better at, why is it that we can't consider anything else? A discussion about liveable cities should involve, well, standards of living.