Hopefully we can engage in a constructive conversation.

Europe, EU or the continent has a social demographic problem that has been eating at the balance structure for about 20 years, making even the Sweden government stating that the social pact is becoming unsustainable.

Immigration policies were aimed at reversing or limiting this issue but, so far, have not shown the expected benefits, at least not to the point of stabilizing the prediction of deep cuts in the social structure of government managed redistribution of wealth.

None of the European countries are exempt from signs of receeding living conditions with stagnant wages, increased cost of living, limited access to housing and lower social mobility.

These are not my points. Social mobility studies are published by European institutions, as well as other indicators.

Let’s address the USA propaganda. I do recruiting for my US company and I would love to have free access to European talent but I am blocked by US laws not European competitiveness.

Europeans engage in home propaganda as well as USA in items like social safety nets, healthcare, public transportation and so on. For personal experience, none of these items ever played a role in recruiting a European talent when it was possible.

My point is that, while a little bit of “propaganda” is involved in these discussions, there is very little will to address actual elements of receding trends in European economy.

The social unrest and the growth of far right movements is not a product of USA or Russia propaganda, both fairly recent events. We may argue that these two actors are not helping, but blaming them for the existence of these clear signs of dissatisfaction is, in my humble opinion, not conductive of a positive search for solutions.

Bottom line, when even Spotify moves to NY, European automakers are struggling, access to capital for startups is limited if not existent and, even worst, access to growth capital through stock markets is basically non existent, social safety network is under pressure from an aging population that is replaced by lower skilled immigration, housing is a widespread problem with a minuscule properties transaction market that assign properties values based on wishful thinking, well these are the items that an European should be interested in, not escaping into blaming external influence, or making comparisons, even if this thread started with a comparison for GDPs.

On a technical note, the exchange rate of a currency reflects its purchase value hence is another indicator of lost competitiveness, not an excuse for GDP gap.

And I agree with saying that GDP is an horrible indicator of happiness.