Good one.

Now explain why unionized European programmers don't get paid nearly the same as un-unionized American ones. Is it because of fascism or something?

I don't think European programmers are unionized? I'm in the Netherlands, and while there are some small upstart unions for software engineers, there has been no collective bargaining action (certainly not at any significant scale).

I'd be happy to be disproven (go unions!), but I haven't heard of other countries that have unionized programmers.

Here's Finland's union for programmers (and other STEM jobs)

https://www.tek.fi/en/about-tek

1. There aren't many countries with unions for programmers. 2. Programmers earn less in general in Europe, so that proves nothing. 3. Companies pay differently in different european countries and we pay more taxes and less in healthcare costs, etc.

Base salary or total compensation?

Do you have any data or reason to believe "unionized European programmers don't get paid nearly the same as un-unionized American ones?"

That's just a list of average salary by country.

Does it show which of these are "UNIONIZED European programmers" and how many are "NON-UNION Americans?" If not, we can dismiss the claim outright.

>If not, we can dismiss the claim outright

All you can say at that point is "I'm too lazy to confirm or disprove it". If you want to disprove his statement for real, you're going to have to put in some effort looking things up.

Nothing has been proved, it would be impossible to disprove. Stated without evidence, dismissed without it.

Because cost of living is different?