The United States is far from an anarchy. There are a huge number of regulations governing employer-employee relationships.
The topic is flexibility in hiring/ firing decisions and whether this flexibility is a good or bad thing overall. The empirical data between US and Europe - where the US has much higher wages and generally lower unemployment - suggests but does not prove this flexibility contributes to a better overall job market. In the US employers may be quicker to fire you, but they are also quicker to hire you.
Personally, as an employee I like the flexibility. If I do a good job, it’s rare to get fired, and I have more ability to jump ship if don’t like my current job.
> and I have more ability to jump ship if don’t like my current job.
This is a complete non-issue in presumably the entire EU (I can only speak for the Netherlands personally, but it's a safe bet except for perhaps Germany)? You can't get fired for literally no reason like in the US, but you can terminate your contract at any time you want with usually 1 month notice. I've literally never encountered any job where it was more than 1 month's notice unless they were very, very high up the food chain like Principal Engineer or VP level, and at that level it's presumably similarly difficult to leave even in the US.
I've actually just quit my job at the start of this month, and I had 16 paid vacation days leftover, so I'll be working for less than half the month before starting my next role. Sure seems like a lot of ability to jump ship to me.
And getting hired hasn't felt harder or more complicated for me than my experience for US companies. Interview processes are the same, you get hired ASAP with companies understanding there's notice periods before you can start working, For the businesses there's a 1-3 month probationary period where you can be let go (most common is 1 month) for no reason, and it's also not like it's impossible to get rid of truly bad performers either, there's just rules in place to make sure companies don't fuck over their employee's lives on a whim. They have to actually prove someone is a detriment to the team, shock horror, in order to fire them.
The alternative in the US for the majority of people not working in big tech for big tech salaries is that the fear of getting fired at any moment in time constantly looms over your head. You're always 1 power-trip away from getting fired by some egotistical dickhead, on top of already having much poorer worker protections, not to mention the state of US healthcare and the fear people have there.
Me? I have a permanent contract and can live safely in the knowledge that if they want to get rid of me unfairly, it'll cost them big time, and even if that happens I know I don't have to stress about ending up in medical debt for the remainder of my natural life should something unfortunate befall me or my loved ones.
NL is definitely at the lower end of EU countries for notice periods. UK is typically 1 month for more junior roles, 2 for more senior. And in Sweden, 3 months is basically the default.
The topic is flexibility in hiring/ firing decisions and whether this flexibility is a good or bad thing overall. The empirical data between US and Europe - where the US has much higher wages and generally lower unemployment - suggests but does not prove this flexibility contributes to a better overall job market. In the US employers may be quicker to fire you, but they are also quicker to hire you.
Personally, as an employee I like the flexibility. If I do a good job, it’s rare to get fired, and I have more ability to jump ship if don’t like my current job.