Every European I've met sees social welfare and regulation as great invention of refined, modern humanist man, without exception. Even the ones who admit it is a failure, gladly avail of it and when it comes right down to it, they like it.
Can confirm, I'm a huge fan of regulation as well, for rules are (still) necessary to provide greater equality among people. It's just not being done the right (fair) way, and it wont ever be done in a fair way as long as power is centralized. If we ever get that far, regulation to provide equality probably wont be necessary anyways.
I think the main reason why we're all so fond of it is because social welfare/social securities and regulations have (in the long term) increased ever since they came into play (post WWII). Take the Dutch pension system for example, its a ponzi scheme;
Everyone working for a paycheck has to pay pension contributions, those are
mandatory. These "savings" aren't saved "for when you're too old to work", they are being used to provide elder people with their pensions. Not contributing to this collective system of inter-generational support is
illegal, individuals are not allowed gather their own pensions, the pyramid would fall apart. Atm we are all contributing 20% of our wage. Bluntly speaking, the moment my dad finished fucking my mom, I was saddled with a 6-digit debt. Declining birth rates will shake its foundation, but hey, lets get reelected.
Until you come to grips with the reality of "democratically" transferring power to the State to steal and that no amount of regulatory oversight can ever reign in corruption (never has and never will), then you will forever be in economic collapse mode. Rpietila astutely pointed out that until you promote private ownership of guns, then you are willfully transferring your veto over corruption. You Europeans will soon experience what not having this veto really means.
The astute youth of Europe will realize they simply need to depart the morass of Europe.
I both fear and long for what will happen when we get confronted with us living a lie. We get nannied to the point where only a war or economic meltdown will wake us up.