It was early this summer, before Americans started crossing the Atlantic to savor the sweetness of European life. Prices are very much affordable for them there, and the Wall Street Journal gave the reason as being Europe’s inexorable impoverishment: “Europeans are facing a new economic reality, one they haven’t experienced in decades. They are becoming poorer,” wrote the business daily. In 2008, the eurozone and the US had equivalent gross domestic products (GDP) at current prices of $14.2 trillion and $14.8 trillion respectively (€13.1 trillion and €13.6 trillion). Fifteen years on, the eurozone’s GDP is just over $15 trillion, while US GDP has soared to $26.9 trillion.

As a result, the GDP gap is now 80%! The European Centre for International Political Economy, a Brussels-based think-tank, published a ranking of GDP per capita of American states and European countries: Italy is just ahead of Mississippi, the poorest of the 50 states, while France is between Idaho and Arkansas, respectively 48th and 49th. Germany doesn’t save face: It lies between Oklahoma and Maine (38th and 39th). This topic is muted in France – immediately met with counter-arguments about life expectancy, junk food, inequality, etc. It even irks the British, who are just as badly off, as evidenced in August by a Financial Times column wondering, “Is Britain really as poor as Mississippi?”

Europe has been (once again) stalling since Covid-19, as it does after every crisis. The Old Continent had been respected as long as Germany held out. But Germany is now a shadow of its former self, hit by Russian gas cuts and China’s tougher stance on its automotive and machine tool exports. The Americans don’t care about these issues. They have inexhaustible energy resources, as the producers of 20% of the world’s crude oil, compared with 12% for Saudi Arabia and 11% for Russia. China, to them, is a subcontracting zone, not an outlet for high-value-added products. The triumph of Tesla is making Mercedes and BMW look outdated.

  • Vormadikter@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    20
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I am notsurprised. I am from Germany. The salary for the job i am doing has been stalling the last 10 years. Even though i am “doing a career”, my salary raises are weak compared to inflation. I am in middle management of a big company and cant afford a fckn house, while people on this position 20 years ago have 3 now. I hate it.

    • CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      30
      ·
      1 year ago

      Hate to tell you this, it’s no different here in the states. Wages have not been remotely kept track with inflation and home ownership is out of reach of most of the population

    • Turkey_Titty_city@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      that’s true of everywhere in the developed economies.

      we value assets more than we value labor. so assets get more expensive and labor is cheaper. and since the rich are getting richer at an unprecedented rate, it’s not going to change unless we have a serious social collapse.

    • Bye@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      That is mostly true here as well. From what my German coworkers tell me (and from what I see in job postings), salaries here are generally higher, even after paying for medical care etc. this is in the sciences but I’ve heard it’s true in other fields as well.

      • Norgur@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yes, they are higher but many calculations say that the end earnings ppl have after all deductions are higher in Germany than in the US. So Americans get payed more but go home with less disposable income. I am no economist though, so… Idk

        • nakal@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          What you want to compare is how common people are living in a coutry and how much they can actually buy. That’s what PPP is for (“purchasing power parity”).

          • Norgur@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            0
            ·
            1 year ago

            No, that’s the wrong metric here. PPP compares prices not earnings for the sake of establishing a standardized “currency” to compare against. It doesn’t say how many of the compared products can be bought with a median income or anything.

            • nakal@kbin.social
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Ok, you’re right. You’d also need the median income to have an objective overview how people live in the country.