Forbes compares EU and USA economically

Forbes compares EU and USA economically



Although we are very much pro-Europe, we are going to start out our analytical postings by isolating some of Europe's biggest problems, and, ultimately, suggesting solutions, true to the proverbial motto that one should spend 80% of one's time on solutions and only 20% on the problems. Most of the world does this backwards.



The European media and the politicians in Europe - ever long on problems and short on solutions - have recently gotten into the regrettable habit of bashing the USA whenever they disagree with America on any topic, relying thereby on the storied history of the Old World and basking in its self-assigned superior sagacity. However, the Sr. is not always the superior to the Jr., so that the Old World still has a lot of catching up to do to arrive in the 21st century.



Forbes does an objective side-by-side comparison of some of the naked economic numbers from the European Union and from the USA. Europeans have no cause for celebration in this exposé. Indeed, these figures speak an entirely different story than the anti-American media hype found in the majority of European newspapers. Yet, these actual facts are seldom reported here in the European press, which is quick to criticize the Bush administration for any fault, but is often blind to the considerable failings of European governments, especially in their OWN countries.



The fact is that Europe has not been pulling its weight in recent years: not politically, not socially, not militarily and not economically. We are talking about a European Union of 450 million inhabitants (since May 1, 2004 and the addition of ten new Member States) as opposed to only 300 million inhabitants in the USA. Yet, Europe lags far behind the USA in many important economic parameters, with little relief in sight, given the current political ruling parties in Europe's major countries.



The February 2, Forbes online carries an AP article entitled A Look at the EU's 'Lisbon Strategy'.



Forbes notes the following comparisons between the EU and the USA:



Labor Productivity - Twice as high in the US as in Europe, with Europe having started to lag behind the US in 1996



Investment - 5.4% growth in the US as compared to 1.7% in Europe



Research and Development - Here there is an advantage of €100 billion (US$ 130 billion) for the US



Patents - The stats favor the USA by an incredible 4 to 1



University Degrees - USA 33%, Europe 19%



Economic Growth - USA 4.4%, Europe 2.2% (and compare: Japan 6.4% and China 9.5%)



When politicians in Europe address widespread unemployment, they overlook the compelling message which these figures send out to them. The "Old World" governments of Europe are currently getting beaten badly by the newbies on the world economic stage, not just by the New World "Amis", but also by emerging powers such as China. Where are the new jobs in Europe going to be coming from, given the desolate growth rate of the European economies?



The decline of labor productivity in Europe starting ca. 1996 goes causally hand in hand - and not by chance - with the coming to power in Europe of Chirac in France (1995) and Schroeder in Germany (1998). Both thank their political positions to coalitions expediently made with anti-capitalist left-wing parties in each of their two countries, parties who seem not to understand anything about national or world economics.



The liberals are constantly chanting for "democracy" and "freedom", and yet, their policies are continuously limiting the necessary base for every freedom that already exists: that foundation is economic freedom. We go into this topic in coming posts but take a look at the world map of economic freedom and the reports here and here, and also note that the countries with the least amount of economic freedom are generally those which also are the most politically oppressed.



What the liberals have failed to realize - and we are political centrists, mind you - is that "economic freedom" is an essential material element for the "exercise" of true political freedom, and vice versa. It is a symbiotic relationship.



A man without a cent in his pocket is not free, not in our modern world, he isn't. Yet, through the programs and policies of predominantly liberal European governments, this economic freedom is constantly being reduced for ever greater percentages of the populations of Europe. Poverty is not freedom, but is rather its opposite, and yet that is the ignoble direction in which numerous European governments are trying to lead the countries of Europe.



We refer here to our next EU Pundit posting covering the Schroeder Administration in Germany as typical for European ills. Only when incompetent administrations such as those of Schroeder are thrown out of office by the voters, will Europe have any legitimate chance to move forward.



But how is this to happen? Things do not look good at all down the road of the next decades. In Germany, the greatest political gains among young voters (who know not the source of their freedoms) recently have been made by the Green Party, whose no-name mostly amateur ranks are generally stocked with desk or kitchen lightweights seeking political office to voice their personal private complaints to the world. It is an abomination.



A good example is the German Green Party chiefperson Bütikofer, whose resume reads like "the man who went from student to politician in one fell swoop", who seemingly understands nothing of democracy, and yet felt compelled recently to lecture President Bush on the subject of democracy. A world led by the Bütikofers of this world would not be free. It is singularly remarkable that people who have never lifted a finger for the freedom they enjoy and who in their professional lives have had little contact with the "real economic free world" - out there somewhere - feel competent to make pronouncements on democracy from their isolated political cocoons. It is the surfacing of a new generation of Green Party political dilettantes.



Take a look at the resume of Roth, Green Party chiefperson, who began her inauspicious political career studying theatre and drama. Other members of the Green Party leadership are chiefperson Lemke, who studied some kind of agriculture, chiefperson Strehl, who is said to have "dealt with money in his previous life", chiefperson Husen, who is fighting for equal rights - how admirable, and chiefperson Nouripour, who won his stripes in German studies. The Green Party bios (pun intended) on the official party page read like something out of a children's storybook or a kindergarten session. The nuts-and-bolts worlds of business, finance, economics, commerce, trade, etc. are not only not well represented in these scenarios - they are not represented AT ALL. And yet these persons and persons like them are to lead Germany into the 21st century?



No way.



It is the world stood on its head. It would be a great humorous film, if it were not true. But as Shakespeare wrote, life is either comedy or tragedy, and the latter definitely applies to the present Germany.



Not experts are running the country here in Germany but the worst form of political amateurs, elected by a partially clueless populace. Look at the Forbes economic figures again and then look at the above Green "figures" again and you will begin to gain an inkling of what is wrong in Europe. If this political incompetence applied only to the Green Party, it might be tolerable, but the qualifications of the leaders of the ruling Socialist Party of Chancellor Schroeder, where we might logically expect a few more professionals in office, do not fare much better in the analysis. See the next post.