> Without high prices in the US, European governments can't negotiate for the same lower prices.

This sounds like total Copium. It is also remarkably anti-market, suggesting that negotiating well is actually bad.

I could invent similar argument for why it is people in the global south that deserve credit for democracy in the west. Or for anything really:

The problem with western democracy is that it is contingent on the Global south being totalitarian and penniless. Without cheap raw materials from the non-west, western governments can’t maintain the high standards of living required for a stable democracy.