I admittedly missed the last part way down at the bottom about systemd-sysv. I suppose that’s more acceptable… but still you’re going to be using a minority distro with a minority configuration … that rarely ends well.
The Internet helps with this some. I’ve found a number of companies, American Giant, American Blanket Company, Trayvax, Liberty Table Top, Awesome Coffee Club, and 360 Cookware that are all from what I can tell, doing it right at the higher price that comes with.
They can stay in business because they don’t have to maintain brick and mortar stores and appeal to the lowest bidder to stay in business.
It’s definitely hard to convince friends to actually spend the extra money though.
What’s the point of this liberty you speak of if we don’t use it to criticize our own governments, and why stop at just criticism? The truth is you’ll only realize how thin your liberty actually is when you actually pose a threat.
You’re conflating a comparison with an endorsement.
One can say the US is unquestionably better than China while still acknowledging the US has issues.
I’d challenge you to find any country that’s truly “trustworthy.” That doesn’t mean I think it’s impossible, I just think historically humans suck at governorship.
As for what’s different between the US and China, your original point, I think a lot of it is just what’s available/who has the better deal. The US historically has the better innovations, the better weaponry, and in the case of Europe, bidirectional cultural influences, and there’s just a lot more history with the US as a partner and a lot more families with folks in both locations.