U.S. Versus Europe: No Winner

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/wn_20100116_2302.php

by jamesbritt • 17 years ago

1 5 17 years ago

For some reason, not many seem to move to Europe. The traffic seems to be mainly in the other direction. A mystery.

Maybe not so much a mystery: the type of people who like the American system are statistically more likely to be the same type of people who are willing to move for new opportunities, while the type of people who like the European system are more likely to want to stay put.

kaveri• 17 years ago

Language is a big factor: English is the first foreign language taught in European schools (and the mother language of most UK and Irish citizens); Americans are traditionally poor at foreign languages, so are less likely to move to a country where they need to learn one.

Another factor is culture - America is more "welcoming" to ethnic minorities, and is built more or less on top of recent immigrants. European nations have a stronger ethnic identity which is less able or willing to accept new groups.

Really though you can't compare America to Europe in a single generalization - Poland, UK and Spain, to name a few, are completely different places, more so than, say, California and West Virginia. It will be impossible (and undesirable) to achieve the same kind of unity America has, not in this century anyway.

ilkhd22• 17 years ago

This guy is delusional. Big time. First of all - what that means?: [level of living standards in United States is still a lot higher.] I never heard about this expression - "level of living standards".Where it is derived from?

Now if we abandon PPP adjusted GDP we'll see that US is not that super-rich country - average GDP per capita places USA on 17th place, far behind many european countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nom... Even Canada (that has been long time a laughstock of USA), in fact has a tiny little difference in nominal GDP with USA - 1-2k$. So why nominal GDP of Canada is 2000$ less than American, but adjusted 8000$ less?. Because Canada is a lot more equal society: GINI (inequality) in Canada = 34 (little higher than european) GINI in USA = 45 (average for African countries). To maintain equality you need more taxes. So less left in pockets of consumers.

Now, let's move to hallucinations: "European unemployment rate is higher than American": USA=10% Norway=3.6% Netherlands = 3.6% Denmark=4.40% Austria=4.8%

You want me continue?? What about obesity: http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence/obesity And social mobility?: http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence/social-mobility Infant death: http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence/physical-health Child well-being: http://www.equalitytrust.org.uk/why/evidence/child-well-bein...

hga• 17 years ago

But you can't abandon PPP, our income goes a lot further than the typical European's. From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purchasing_power_parity

"[PPP] equalizes the purchasing power of different currencies in their home countries for a given basket of goods. Using a PPP basis is arguably more useful when comparing differences in living standards on the whole between nations because PPP takes into account the relative cost of living and the inflation rates of different countries, rather than just a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) comparison."

And you're cherry picking unemployment figures, from particularly small countries.

E.g. go to http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/table.do?tab=table&... and you'll see the 2009 November (September for the UK) rates for:

  EU:    9.5-10%

  France:  10.0%
  Italy:    8.3%
  Ireland: 12.9%
  Germany:  7.6%
  Spain:   19.4%
  UK:       7.8%

The above paints a rather different picture, doesn't it?

ilkhd22• 17 years ago

I advised to abandon PPP not because that I think that is a bad meausure, but just to show that Europeans are _not_ making less money. And the reason for higher prices for stuff patially that are paid better salaries., so to produce things you need to spend more money. And also Europe produce more stuff for its own consumption, that makes goods more expensive.

Now it is you who is cherry-picking.

About unemployment: Even if take EU average, we see that it is not higher than American average 10%. It is at _worst_ equal. Now USA often uses creative ways (unemployed but not seeking and all he other odd ways of meausuring) to meausure unemployment, If you read alternative sources, you can often see 17% of real unemployment in USA.

No it is not making meaningfully different picture.

U.S. Versus Europe: No Winner

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