PARKVILLE, Mo.—Frank Everink hadn’t even heard of Kansas City.

But when the Dutch soccer fanatic saw his team would be playing along the border of Missouri and Kansas, he made a detour in his worldwide road trip. Everink got into his camper van and drove south from Toronto, making stops in Detroit, Chicago and Indianapolis.

Along the way, he—and other European fans who flocked to Kansas City for the World Cup—beheld the fruits of the American economy from a vantage point few foreign tourists typically see: suburban superstores, hulking plates of food, quiet streets. He marveled at the sprawling houses, a contrast from the tightly packed homes of the Netherlands.

“It’s spacious,” he said. “You go here for your shopping, and there for your dentist. People are so rich here. I think that’s why they can be so nice.”

The throngs of Dutch fans that flooded Kansas City and its suburbs this past week got a taste of day-to-day life in the U.S., reigniting a long-running trans-Atlantic debate: Who lives better, Americans or Europeans?

The Europeans had plenty of thoughts on American culture. “We are a bit shocked about all the food you are eating,” said Dutch national team superfan Sandra Tatee. Fans also balked at the size of the Costcos and the vastness of the highways.

In recent days, social media has been filled with videos of Europeans gawking at the staples of suburban American life—a two-car garage, a walk-in closet, a second refrigerator. One Brit went viral for trying Chick-fil-A for the first time: “That was absolutely banging,” he said. In another, he toured the inside of an American fire station, marveling at the size of the trucks and the station itself. “This is nuts, honestly,” he said.

The data sheds some light: The average American home is about 1,800 square feet, with new single-family homes measuring well over 2,000 square feet, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Europeans’ homes are about 1,100 square feet on average, according to data from U.K. and European Union data agencies.

Such measures of wealth offer only a partial view of what it is like to live on these two continents. Europeans might earn less and own less stuff, but they also work less hours and, many argue, benefit from stronger social safety nets.

When Ron Visser and his American wife were weighing where to settle down—the U.S. or the Netherlands—they calculated that though Visser made about $40,000 less in the Netherlands than his wife did in the U.S., the difference in salaries was erased by an equivalent gap in standard of living.

Still, the U.S. offered the luxury of space, Visser said. He moved to the U.S. in the fall and now lives with his wife outside Kansas City. Visser recently bought a 22-acre vacant lot for $250,000 to convert into a farm. In the cramped Netherlands, he said, such a plot would have cost at least $1 million.

Visser and other Dutch fans took up residence this past week at the Alley Bar, an American legion post in Parkville, Mo., that Chris Wallingford, who runs the bar, converted into a Dutch haven after learning that the national team’s training center was nearby. Customers have gaped at his portion sizes, he said—one woman ordered a plate of nachos and consumed roughly four bites.

Variations in portion size have become an established part of any discussion of cultural difference. One 2024 study showed that American portion sizes are 42% larger than those in France. A large McDonald’s drink in the U.S. holds almost twice as much—30 ounces—as a large in France or the U.K.

The space at Alley Bar morphed into a melting pot. Dutch fans ate American food at an American Legion post; Americans drank Dutch beer and wore Dutch jerseys. While the World Cup has been a disappointment for some businesses, the Alley Bar was at capacity. To prepare for Thursday’s night’s match against Tunisia, Wallingford had 35 kegs of beer cooling and 400 croquettes—a Dutch fried snack—shipped from out of town.

Everink parked his van just up the street and has become a local legend at the Alley Bar, where he watches most of the games. Over the course of his road trip, he’s noticed another big cultural difference: “Here, if you sit at a table, within five minutes they talk about money,” he said. “We never talk about money. We talk about ourselves.”

Although the Netherlands lacks a U.S.-level economy and “cannot make billions of dollars,” he called his home country an innovative machine that works effectively.

“Europe isn’t poor the same way that Alabama or Mississippi are poor,” wrote American economist and former New York Times columnist Paul Krugman in May. “It’s misleading to conclude that Europeans have a clearly lower standard of living than Americans when they have essentially just made different choices.”

U.S. per-capita gross domestic product stood at roughly $85,000 in 2024, compared with around $43,000 in the European Union. When adjusted for inflation, U.S. per-capita GDP grew roughly 20% between 2014 and 2024; during the same period, EU per-capita GDP rose around 16%.

Krugman has been embroiled in a debate with a group of European economists, including French Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion, over whether Europe is really falling behind.

Krugman has argued the continent’s decline is exaggerated, that standard economic data has been distorted by the U.S. tech industry and doesn’t reflect the quality of life on either continent.

Ryan Schoonveld, whose family lives in the Netherlands, drove from Michigan to Kansas City on Thursday at 2 a.m. to watch the game at the Alley Bar. He said Americans tend to think Europeans must hate their economic model of high taxes and high benefits. “But none of my relatives complain about it,” he said. “They love it.”

Brothers Sal and Daniello Cohen have trekked around the U.S. with Sal’s son to follow the Dutch team. Sal left the Netherlands for the U.S. decades ago, attracted by the country’s entrepreneurial opportunities. Daniello stayed in the Netherlands, where he has been able to make good money and where his healthcare plan costs him roughly 350 euros a month.

“The portions are bigger” in the U.S., Daniello said over a plate of barbecue chicken and fries in suburban Kansas City. “But the prices are bigger, too.”

Some Dutch fans in Kansas City were impressed—but confused—by the scale of U.S. consumerism. Dutch fan Max Hall and his friend didn’t know why there needed to be two Home Depots within a 10-mile radius. When they entered a Walmart in search of new clothes (they lost their luggage in transit), they wound up spending a whole hour in the store, lost in the aisles. Fellow Dutch fans Mike Tol and Demi Tol struggled to navigate Costco.

Mats van der Plaats, who traveled to Kansas City from the Netherlands, was struck by the giant exit signs in the restrooms. “The designs here are insane. Magnificent, really,” he said, adding that Europeans travel the U.S. to see “extremes.”

Added van der Plaats: “Everything is three times the size.”