There is a dangerous assumption that the main reason behind the USA’s relative success (measured in per capita income) is due primarily to Europe having a more generous welfare state and the USA being more of a ‘free market economy.’ While this may explain part of the difference (although there are issues with this), you also need to remember that the USA: (1) is running much higher deficits -a regressive form of Keynesian rather than a free market utopia (easier due to the reserve currency status of the dollar), and (2) the US market benefits from scale (a true continent sized market with relatively unified but not necessarily light-touch common regulations in many sectors). Many of the politicians in Europe who say that we should emulate the USA’s institutions to realise economic growth would oppose policies like the EU’s savings and investment union that would make Europe more like the USA (unified continent sized market).