A soaring US vs a stagnant EU? “Europeans benefit from more leisure time than Americans, higher life expectancy & lower inequality levels, all w/ comparable productivity rates. However one looks at it, this is a considerably better economic performance.”
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Doing some quick math with stock prices. The S&P500 rose ~20% last year as did the EUROSTOXX50.
But the S&P is denominated in dollars and the Euro Stoxx in euros, and the euro gained 11% on the dollar last year. So Americans investing in America made 20%, but those investing in Europe made 30% - they made money on the stocks they bought and sold and on the currency they had to buy and sell in order to buy and sell the stocks.
Even by the "only the stock market matters" measurement that Republicans and finance weirdos frequently push, the EU did significantly better than then US last year.
It looks even starker if you take the top “tech” stocks out, all of which are “AI inflated” judging by their outsized PE ratios
This is a really important point. Somewhere a lot of economists and politicians – even the ones who don't just lie – have forgotten that the purpose of an economics is the wellbeing of humans, not making some number as big as possible. And Europe is doing much better than the US here. Much better.
Economists and politicians make a lot of noise about “productivity” and the supposed need to be ever more productive. But real productive forces have been supercharged for a very long time. As a species we produce more and more at a faster pace every year. There is so much “stuff” in the world we barely know where to put it all.
The real problem isn’t insufficient production, it’s inadequate distribution, the inability of a huge swath of the world’s people to consume what we produce.
America's ability to sell its image of itself to itself is terrifically strong. Another word for that is propaganda, of course. It makes up a significant part of America's culture and the ideas that become unassailable defining what it means to be 'successful,' much less the imperative to be 'successful.' The degradation of intellectuals as viable guides for government policy - in favor of 'instincts' and politically favorable notions of the moment - help push this process along. It's not working out for the majority of Americans.
sclerotic USA can't feed or house or keep its people safe and healthy. sad face. unwavering belief in capitalism and billionaires is incredibly rigid, unresponsive and unadaptable.
"claiming that even the poorest US states, such as Mississippi or West Virginia, now enjoyed a higher standard of living than Germany."
Whoever is claiming this is knowingly lying. Pretty well everyone in Germany has health insurance (either public or private, depending on employment, income, etc.). How many people in Mississippi and West Virginia do not have adequate health insurance? Standard of living is SO much better in Germany than in the United States; I was just talking to someone today here in Canada who was appalled at the state of major U.S. cities like LA and Portland, because there are so obviously so many people living there in abject poverty compared to Canada (and Germany). Sure, people here in Canada and in Germany also complain about rising costs, and our insurance could always be improved, etc. But there is a just a different level of inequality in the U.S., and it's amazing what basic health insurance for does to take away a major stressor.
(also I wasn't clear on this but I know what's required in Germany because I've lived there recently. Even as a visiting academic family with travel health insurance back home, we had to have German health insurance to live there temporarily. I've had German health insurance 3 times in my life and it's even better than Canada.)
I loved in Germany for 3.5 years! 100% agree!! Better than the Canadian system. (I am Canadian!)
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