When debating big issues such as the size and scope of government, I like to think that facts matter. Maybe I’m being naive, but people should look at evidence before deciding whether to make government bigger or smaller.
And with Biden proposing a big expansion in the size of the welfare state, this is why I regularly compare the economic performance of the United States and various European nations.
After all, if we’re going to make America more like Europe, shouldn’t we try to understand what that might mean for the well being of the citizenry?
With this in mind, I want to share this tweet (based on this data) from Stefan Schubert at the London School of Economics.
The obvious takeaway is that the average person in the United States enjoys much higher living standards (more than 50 percent higher) than the average person in the European Union.
Even more astounding, the United States even has a big 20-percent advantage of the wealthy tax haven of Luxembourg.
By the way, the above data may understate the gap if you make apples-to-apples comparisons.
Nima Sanandaji compared the economic output of Scandinavians who emigrated to the United States with Scandinavians who stayed home.
He found even bigger gaps, one example of which is the data about Swedes in this chart.
Let’s look at one more bit of data.
Another way of illustrating the gap is see how European nations no longer are converging with the United States (and may actually be diverging).
The only good news for Europeans (if we’re grading on a curve) is that there’s been a decline in both the relative and absolute levels of economic freedom in the United States during the 21st century.
If that continues, the U.S. may “catch up” to Europe at some point in the future. Joe Biden certainly is working for that outcome.
