What Happens When Europeans Find Out How Poor They Are?

The Continent trails far behind U.S. economic output. Politics is bound to catch up sooner or later

By Joseph C. Sternberg. Excerpts:

"per capita gross domestic product: $94,400 in the U.S., according to the International Monetary Fund, compared with $65,300 in Germany, $61,000 in the U.K. and $52,000 in France."

"From a fairly narrow edge throughout the 1980s, the gap widened a bit in the 1990s. Since 2007, however, European per capita incomes have more or less stagnated while the U.S. has enjoyed another growth spurt."

"Switzerland amps up its per-capita GDP to $126,000 by attracting finance and pharma."

"The wealth skewing American per capita economic data is a result of innovation and entrepreneurship. Europe lacks America’s per capita output not because it lacks American tech companies and billionaires but because it lacks American-style productivity growth capable of creating tech companies and billionaires in Europe."

"On average, [British] respondents thought that if the U.K. were a state, it would be the seventh-richest in terms of per-capita GDP, behind the likes of New York and California. The reality is that Britain is toward the bottom of the table, roughly on the level of Mississippi." 

"Using the PPP metric, U.S. GDP per capita is $94,400, Germany’s is $76,800, Britain’s is $67,600, and France’s is $68,600."

"That means, broadly, that a nominal per capita income of $61,000 in the U.K. allows a Briton to consume the same amount of goods and services that would cost $67,600 in America. But that’s merely a different way of stating Europe’s problem. Europe’s economies look healthier in PPP terms to the extent a lower price level allows households to stretch their euros and pounds further. Those lower prices reflect Europe’s lower productivity. Meanwhile nominal GDP expresses Europe’s ability to consume global resources, which is lagging."