this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2023
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Those pesky things like quality of life indicators. Everyone knows there's only one number that matters and that's how much money you have in dollars, right? And by you, we mean the top 1%. /s
Mean and median household income is also much higher, and disposable income (so after taxes, housing and insurance) is also higher.
But thatβs beyond the point. GDP maybe a catch-all indicator and not a measure of quality of life, but it is also the result of the American supremacy over science and technology.
The US has always attracted the brightest minds of the world with its huge salaries and colossal investments in R&D, and continues to do so while Europe shows no signs of catching-up. If the EU wants to keep the way of life it provides its citizens and stay relevant on the international stage, it has to rise-up to the challenge. It lost the tech race and now it is losing IA race.
GDP measures the strength of the economy. The only thing the EU has to do to keep its quality of life, is to have a stable GDP per capita. Obviously having a stronger economy is helpfull, but it comes at a price. For example Germany is pretty close to as efficent as the US in terms of GDP per hour worked. It is just that Germans do not work as much as Americans, due to choosing to have more vaccation time and shorter workweeks on average. Hardly an awfull choice. To use another example. In the US you have to have a car, as everything is extremly car centric, but in the Netherlands you can just ride your bike to work. A car costs more then a bicycle and it requires fuel. Even better cars make people sick, due to bad air quality and well accidents. So bicycles, whcih provide light exercise actually are bad for the economy, as fewer workers are needed to put them together, provide fuel and provide medical services. There is a lot of stuff like that.
This is not to say that Europe can learn nothing from the US. The US ability to create innovation is great and only matched by a few European countries. That being said, looking only at GDP is like judging somebody only by their income. It just does not tell you, how good their life really is.
That's true. I didn't think about the fact that a huge part of the US GDP is simply overconsumption and car transportation. Also probably the billions that pass through private insurance and medical facilities.
Comparing disposable income between US and EU is misleading, because Europeans are forced to pay for things like health insurance or unemployment insurance, while US-americans are free not to have them (and suffer the consequences). In reality every US-american that can, does pay for health insurance, and pays significantly more for worse coverage than Europeans. But in the statistic this is counted as a voluntary expense which is why the disposable income metric is misleading. There is more, like saving for the university education of the children, which again would be counted as disposable income. Europeans get uni education "for free".
Well said!