Encore le defi Americain

“For half a century, western Europe did a wonderful job of dealing with what Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber, the French author, called le defi Americain. But the challenge has been renewed. Can Europe respond?” Martin Wolf analyses the US productivity surge, and wonders whether it marks a historic shift.

I’ll defer to his analysis, but I think he misses (or chooses to disregard) an important point. A large number of Europeans, I’d reckon a majority, would choose their societies in preference to the US even at the cost of living standards. This may well alter over time, particularly if disparities widen. And I don’t think everything about the European attitude is admirable: the stance is taken at the cost of accepting that too many fellow citizens are unemployed (even if they are cushioned by comparatively generous social safety nets). On the other hand, no European country incarcerates 0.7% of its population.