> whereas these days much of Europe can’t maintain living standards or political stability

Those are the side effects of Europe trying to offset its fertility rate with immigration, yet failing to explicitly address the enculturation tension.

It's remarkably how people so smart in one area (demographic issues and solutions) can flounder so badly in another (addressing cultural friction with immigrants).

Especially considering history has "a few" examples of exactly this same thing, although possibly Americans have more experience in modernity.