Could their economic woes be related to the apparent size of the continent? Maybe if we issued new maps with a projection that visually exaggerates Europe's size even more than it already does with the Mercator projection, and shrinks USA's and China's, then surely Europe's economic output should grow too. I heard this was supposed to work with Africa, so maybe it's worth a shot.

At this point a lot of economic growth is just generating garbage, but because we are so addicted to growth, we have to keep generating garbage.

A better question to ask would be, would you prefer to live in Europe or the U.S.? Not work, live. The idea that our lives should be work from graduation to grave doesn't really seem like something we ought to be valorizing—it sucks for the planet, and it sucks for us.

I think the goal is to have a robust economy, not necessarily to compete to be one of the largest.

"America innovates, China imitates, Europe regulates" is probably a fair summary, however Europe is the only one of those three I would consider living in. I don't care about the personal income difference etc, I have spent time in all three and it no contest if you are looking at the quality of lifestyle.

When you start looking at the top economies in Europe, it's clear, their fundamentals are mostly fine, especially around innovation. They need to tune their ways, but it's quite salvageable. Biotech?...Novo Nordisk is doing quite well, as are many other pharma giants.

Europe doesn't do much in the device/computer space, beyond maybe ASML & Europe sucks in software, but really everyone but the USA does. And honestly, they're probably #2. Japan is SHIIIIT on software. Seriously, WTF guys?...you do so much so well, but there's not a single Japanese software product I know of on the market and every UI in every Japanese device ranging from cameras to cars is dogshit...looks like it hasn't changed since the 80s and is unnecessarily complex and unintuitive. China?...same. Australia has a company or 2, but that's all I know of...beyond SAP...which is typically poorly regarded. No one "chooses" SAP...it's chosen for them by someone who will never use it...typically after being heavily bribed. They're regarded by most as a better version of IBM...which is far from a compliment.

America is awesome in most things, but the main reason is we've been so immigrant friendly for so long (not counting current administration). We're not only happy to take your best minds...we'll give them a fucking loan, great bankruptcy protection, and a huge talent pool as well as the best access to seasoned investors and mentors. Well over half of our recent best companies were founded or cofounded by immigrants. We're inherently great...but....out overall greatness is massively amplified by imported talent.

Once Europe can figure out how to support their entrepreneurs and immigrants and help them start businesses, they will have no problem competing, if not overtaking the USA in the innovation corner. IMO, that's why Japan never overtook us and China and India never will. All 3 of those societies are inherently racist and isolationist. They can only compete with their own minds.

Europe has recently changed their ways to welcome more immigrants recently. Just 10 years ago, if you moved to Sweden, spoke perfect Swedish, but had a foreign accent, you were not really accepted or integrated into society, especially if you weren't white...yeah, no one firebombed your house...but your kids had a stigma and would face resistance marrying locals, for example. You were never a "real Swede"...same with most of Europe beyond maybe Great Britain.

The reason Trump is so shitty to immigrants is that many in the USA never liked how welcoming we are of immigrants...and it can be shitty being an immigrant in the USA...until you compare it to the China, India, Norway, Romania, Greece, France, the Middle East, etc. You can not only live here, especially in urban areas...you can intermarry, be welcomed in communities, etc. If you learn the language and do minimal efforts to fit in (like follow the regional sports teams), you're 100% American to about 75% of the total population...probably 90% in urban/suburban areas. Here, in MA, immigrants with THICK accents do well in the suburbs simply with a Pats shirt (New England Patriots, our local football team) and basic friendliness. They and their kids are welcomed by the locals and integrated as much as they'd like to be...especially immigrants that make the effort to assimilate, like most Chinese and Filipino families.

I know about 10 years ago, that WAS NOT the case in most of Europe, especially the shitty parts, like Bulgaria, but even the wealthier nations as well. I've been told that's changing. But yeah...treat immigrants like shit and you're stuck with local talent.

So fix your cultural issues and then start giving everyone support in starting businesses, and then you'll catch up with the USA. Yeah, you got some dumb regulations, but that's a minor part of the story. The USA has plenty of stupid regulations and our most regulated states have historically had the most success. Our most unregulated states, like Texas and Flo

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Competition from China

Way too many rules that make it nearly impossible to make anything

If you measure "winning" by per-capita GDP, then yes. Europe is way behind the USA.

If you measure "winning" by happiness, healthcare affordability, and leisure time, then Europe is way, way, way ahead of the USA.

What lunatic of an economics journalist thought this sentence made sense ?! :

"Europe's share of global economic output has fallen from 33% to 23% since 2005 while its space launch capacity has nearly collapsed,"

GDP is usually a measure of how wealthy the wealthiest person in a country. It is NOT relevant to poverty. Many countries with high GDP also have high poverty. And many countries with low GDP have low poverty.

Mainly because salaries have not kept up with profits. So GDP no longer is correlated to poverty.

It measures economic activity. Not quality of life. Not quality of the environment. Just how much value is extracted per population on average. A baby will have the same per capita GDP as whoever is the richest person in that country.

It does not reflect anything on the quality of life, nor on the actual wealth of the population.

There are 1.1M Americans living in the EU, there are 4.7 Europeans living in the USA. Net migration trends seem to counter the Slashdot crowds assessment that the EU is a better place to live. US unemployment for youths is 7.4% vs 14.8%. Yeah, money can't buy everything but it sure helps.

In the EU, most people don't pay health insurance, don't worry about being left homeless, pay exactly what the price of lunch is (no tipping) enjoy their lives without feeling like they need to constantly work, work, work. Oh and there's a distinct lack of guns everywhere.

OTOH, the US innovates better but the cost is the US debt which is like 95% of GDP compared to 86% of GDP for the EU.

The US debt was a lot lower than the EU until 2008 when US politicians found out they could fund almost anything by pushi