Below is an excellent article comparing the financial success of Europe vs. the United States — and specifically with the STATES of the U.S. As has been previously demonstrated, most Europeans are less well off than America’s lower income folks.
While this includes great data, and is based on the fine work of Economics Professor Mark Perry (I’m a fan), it does an inadequate job of adjusting for the COL in the American states and European countries. There is one chart giving the CONSUMPTION comparison which dramatically demonstrates the superiority of America vs. all the European countries, but it would be even more interesting to break that down for a state by state comparison to European countries. Ah well, it’s good enough as it is.
BTW, IF you are interesting in how our American prosperity compares between U.S. states, see my article comparing state per capita GDP adjusted for COL. For instance, you’ll find that, adjusted for COL, the per capita GDP of Texas is about 45% higher than CA:
http://riderrants.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-true-ranking-of-californias-gdp-vs.html
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F.E.E.
http://fee.org/articles/most-of-europe-is-a-lot-poorer-than-most-of-the-united-states/
Most of Europe is a Lot Poorer than Most of the U.S.
by Daniel Mitchell 2 April, 2016
Below is an excellent article comparing the financial success of Europe vs. the United States — and specifically with the STATES of the U.S. As has been previously demonstrated, most Europeans are less well off than America’s lower income folks.
While this includes great data, and is based on the fine work of Economics Professor Mark Perry (I’m a fan), it does an inadequate job of adjusting for the COL in the American states and European countries. There is one chart giving the CONSUMPTION comparison which dramatically demonstrates the superiority of America vs. all the European countries, but it would be even more interesting to break that down for a state by state comparison to European countries. Ah well, it’s good enough as it is.
BTW, IF you are interesting in how our American prosperity compares between U.S. states, see my article comparing state per capita GDP adjusted for COL. For instance, you’ll find that, adjusted for COL, the per capita GDP of Texas is about 45% higher than CA:
http://riderrants.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-true-ranking-of-californias-gdp-vs.html
=======================
F.E.E.
http://fee.org/articles/most-of-europe-is-a-lot-poorer-than-most-of-the-united-states/
Most of Europe is a Lot Poorer than Most of the U.S.
by Daniel Mitchell 2 April, 2016
I wrote previously that many European nations are doomed by demographics to fiscal chaos, but a lot of people don’t care that much about the future.
Bernie Sanders, for instance, looks at nations such as Denmark and Sweden today and says that America should copy their expansive welfare states.
Is he right?
Well, it depends on the parameters. If, for some reason, somebody was holding a gun to my head and demanding that we copy the policies of a nation from the European Union, the Nordic countries would be among my top choices. Yes, their welfare states are too large, but they somewhat compensate for that mistake by having very pro-free market policies in other areas.
That being said, Ireland and the United Kingdom have the most economic freedom among EU nations, and Switzerland would be at the top if the choice was broadened to non-EU nations in Europe.
But I’m digressing. Let’s get back to whether people in places such as Denmark (or anywhere else in Europe) enjoy more prosperity than their American counterparts.
Mark Perry of the American Enterprise Institute has put together some apples-to-apples data suggesting the answer is no. At least if the goal is more economic output and higher living standards.
Most European countries (including Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium) if they joined the US, would rank among the poorest one-third of US states on a per-capita GDP basis, and the UK, France, Japan and New Zealand would all rank among America’s very poorest states, below No. 47 West Virginia, and not too far above No. 50 Mississippi. Countries like Italy, S. Korea, Spain, Portugal and Greece would each rank below Mississippi as the poorest states in the country.
. . .
To read the rest of the article and see the data, go to the link:
http://fee.org/articles/most-of-europe-is-a-lot-poorer-than-most-of-the-united-states/