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Yet the hard-core brainwashed will probably think it's just a matter of time until it collapses into tyranny. 
I had a Vietnamese-American coworker who could never seem to separate the economic from the political, after he escaped Saigon shortly after the North Vietnamese took over.
He was an obstinate jackass, and racist too, the more that I remember him in hindsight.
... some disappointment in this country, saying that he grew up in Saigon hearing all kinds of incredible exaggerations of the luxuries and privileges experienced by everyone in the USA. Instead, he was immediately working hard at some textile manufacturer for little pay as he taught himself English.
But anytime he even heard the word "socialism", he automatically equated it with anti-democratic tyranny. No counter-examples, like in Canada or Europe, could shake him out of it.
He had some interesting stories, though. His motorized boat that departed Vietnam landed in Indonesia, and he was detained there for many months. The detainees had to form groups of four people who had to share a bag of rice and beans to sustain them for several days at a time, but he chose only small children in his group (somehow) since they wouldn't eat as much! He saw others who grouped-up with other adults that they knew, but they were later screaming out with pangs of hunger according to him. Any packages that were mailed to him from family, which referenced the included food and other goodies in the enclosed letter, had nothing but the letter inside when he got them. His captors obviously took everything else.
He was a practical joker, and he'd often look at me with a smile whenever he'd demonstrate the incredible stupidity of our co-workers. Like one time someone asked him, "How the hell did you get to this country, anyway?" He replied, "I swim! I swim across the Pacific Ocean! I'm a #1 swimmer, better than gold medal in the Olympics!" Then he'd smile at my shocked face as some people replied, "Really?!" and the like.
Then he'd tell them honestly that he was one of the Vietnamese boat people, with yet another dummy interrupting him to say, "Oh, I know about them from the news a few years back! So you landed in Florida, right?"
I'm neither "disgustingly selfish and ignorant", nor self-hating.
how many multibillionaires do they have? That's what's important! It's all that matters!
I have lived in Sweden for over 20 years and I have even spent time in Norway where we have good friends that live there. It is doubtful that Being an EU member has any bearing on the quality of healthcare in the countries you mentioned. Also, It would be difficult to argue that Norway is less bureaucratic than other EU countries. That is laughable. And The apple, or cucumber example is a huge cliche used again and again by opponents of the EU. To be sure, the EU has a lot of short comings, but nevertheless has fulfilled its original purpose, which is "a peace project". talked about way too little in my opinion. Also. I do not believe it to be a stretch to claim that Most people in Europe think about the EU about as often as Americans think about NAFTA, which is almost never.
As far as healthcare, it is pretty well established that one thing that all western countries have in common is that they are equally critical of their own respective healthcare systems. Presumably because of its importance and the need to keep it improving. When Americans ask me about the healthcare here (they seldom do), I always give them an honest answer. I am highly critical and think there is lots of room for improvement. But here is the thing, I would never ever trade for the American system. Never. And I am speaking from the point of view of a chronically ill individual who spends a lot of time at the hospital. In fact, Being in America in my condition would be my biggest nightmare.
There is a lot to unpack in your posts DWF. I offer here a starter.
Glad to hear you appreciate humor, we all can use more of it.
If you have a chronic condition, I agree, you are better off somewhere where insurance will take care of you. In Dallas, my employer's insurance blows you off if you submit bills from outside the country, as I do, but our people in Dallas enjoy good coverage, including visual aid, not typical. My wife is a retired German social worker, and she worked with some of the several hundred thousand Geramns without health insurance. Not all countries in Europe offer comprehensive coverage.
The original idea behind the EU, i.e. Adenauer and DeGaulle getting together to figure out how to make sure France and Germany never fought another war against each other, was indeed an inspiration. Too bad it degenerated into a bureaucratic nightmare so profound, it made a Brexit campaign not only plausible, but viable. It goes well beyond Danish apples. The notion of loading the whole EU parliament into trucks (and the members and support staff into first class travel) between Brussels and Strasbourg once for a week of Strasbourg's (admittedly great) food and hotels every month is a ridiculous extravagance the EU could manange to exist without. The French built a hugely expensive EU Parliament building in Strasbourg although there was one in Brussels, and so they insisted it be used. A few hundred million Euros a month go for this trek, and guess who pays for it? If you live in Sweden, then you and I both do.
As for the EU, maybe the attitude you claim (that the citizens never think about it) is prevalent in Sweden. However, in the countries I frequent most (Germany, where I live, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, and non-EU Switzerland), it is a subject of constant discussion. The Germans are incensed over their taxes helping prop up fascist-trending Poland and Hungary. They also are furious that the EU let in Romania and Bulgaria, thereby letting in a flood of organized crime. The idea was to furnish a pool of cheap labor in eastern Europe for a few big EU companies in the west. Just ask Nokia how closing their huge plant in Germany and relocating to Romania worked out (it didn't--they soon closed Romania and moved to China, although most of the 4000 Germans formerly employed by Nokia never got their jobs back). Kiitos, Suomi! My colleagues in Switzerland are dead set against their country joining the EU, and furious with their government for joining Schengen. I speak the languages of all countries I frequently work in, including Dutch, Swiss German and Catalan. I don't get these impressions off of web sites written by people I don't know, but rather from real live people . Taxi drivers, waiters, cops, customs officials, teachers, and a lot of etc.
Both the French and the Germans ARE grateful that the notion of another war between the two now indeed seems unthinkable, due to the nearly full economic integration of the two. They are not thrilled with all the baggage that has been added onto Adenauer's and DeGaulle's original inspiration.
If I were covered by Swedish health insurance, I wouldn't trade it for the US system, either. My wife is a German citizen and a two time cancer survivor. She wouldn't trade her health coverage for the USA, either. But when I moved permanently to Germany, I was told that with my pre-existing conditions (heart issues) and US employer, it would cost me €30,000, or about $35,000, post-tax, per year for health insurance in Germany, and that was ten years ago. If I have anything that looks serious, I fly back to the USA and have it done there, where my insurance picks up most of it. Even if the procedure costs a third in Germany, the Americans categorically refuse to cover it, like the bad guys in a John Grisham novel.
For the record, our airport code is DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth). If there is a DWF, I've never flown in or out of there 
Hälsningar från Truro, Massachusetts (we all need a break, at least once a year).
Chicago gets its water from Lake Michigan.
Dumping sewage into their drinking water wasn't working out so they reversed the flow of the Chicago River into the Des Plaines river, which flows into the Illinois River, on down to the Mississippi.
In the bad old days people believed rivers could magically clean sewage and they even created fancy formulas for calculating how many miles of river it took to clean up a city's sewage based on population, a number that often came fancifully close to the distance from the next major city downstream.
Here in the 21st century we have the technology to make potable water out of sewage. When I flush the toilet some of that water is going to get back to me.
Chicago isn't treating their sewage to quite that extent yet, you wouldn't want to drink it, but the waste water they send south isn't anywhere near as toxic as it used to be.
I'm not familiar with the history of Milwaukee sewerage.
