Quote:
Originally Posted by ADL Colin
Strange statement. How do you conclude that? Both Eastern and Western Europe or do you mean the EU? And do you mean nominal or real? And what do you mean by "healthy"?
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Especially meant Western Europe, if we have more than 2% GDP growth, they are happy, 3% and governments start flipping out. I remember some years ago the US had more than 5%, it was booming, but as soon as it dipped under 5% problems started.
You can not underestimate how volatile financial security is for Americans compared to Europeans.
In Western Europe if you loose your job for instance the unemployment check you get is decent, you will not become poor, because you lost your job. Also there are no real added costs for health care and pensions, unemployment benefits count towards your pension.
BUT that security comes at the price: the system is not flexible if you want to do something that is something new or different. It is far more easy to become rich in the US. Starting a company in Europe is painstakingly slow, expensive and difficult, compare this to the quick and cheap American LLC and you start crying.
and if you don't believe me, just compare poverty statistics, you will also notice Japan is kicking both our asses on that account