My European lifestyle differs from that of the US largely because of Europe’s lack of remedies for individuals who are damaged. In the US you can fearlessly enter contracts & loosely buy any product/service you want because consumer protections are far superiour for consumers who are willing to take action.

Europe’s style of consumer protection ignores the individual. If many consumers get burnt/scammed by the same supplier, regulators will take action on behalf of the people if there’s sufficient critical mass of people affected. And when a fine hits, the victims still get no compensation -- just satisfaction of knowing the baddy was corrected. More commonly you get burnt in a one-off transaction in which case you’re a neglegible case.

This means I’m incredibly cautious about who I do business with in Europe. I do not front money to contractors. If a deal seems too good to be true, I walk. When there is no confidence in consumer protection, fewer transactions happen. And now that I see how unenforced the GDPR is, I distrust data controllers with my data and often opt not to transact at all for that reason.