Politically & economically, does Euro-style social democracy reduce individual freedom, or Increase it?

I think it increases your freedom in the ways that matter most. When you don't have to worry about getting sick because you can't pay for health care, and you don't have to worry about where you will get the money to put your kid through college, and you don't really have to worry about gas being expensive because you can take public transportation; then you can worry about where you will go with the 6 or so weeks of vacation that most everybody gets. Come on. Polls consistently show that people from the European social democracies are much more satisfied with their lives that people in the US. I will take their freedom from these worries over our fighting to stay secure any day.