Europeans are frustrated. They have been behind the United States economically for years and thought this was due to lack of economic integration. So they created the European Union, with a common currency and virtually free mobility of goods, capital and labor throughout the continent. Yet Europe continues to lag.

A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the United States with real gross domestic product per person in 2003 of ,960 (in 1999 dollars). This is well above every European country. The most productive European country, Norway, has a per capita GDP of just ,882 (converted using purchasing power parity exchange rates). The major countries of Europe are even further behind: United Kingdom (,039), France (,578), Italy (,894) and Germany (,813).

In other words, Europeans produce no more per year than Americans did 20 years ago. And they are not catching up. According to the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland, the productivity gap between the United States and Europe is actually widening. In the Euro area as a whole, workers were 86 percent as productive as American workers in 1995. In 2003, this fell to 84 percent.

As a consequence, living standards are much lower in Europe than most Americans imagine. This fact is highlighted in a new study by the Swedish think tank Timbro. For example, it notes that the average poor family here has 25 percent more living space than the average European. Looking at all American households, we have about twice as much space: 1,875 square feet here versus 976.5 square feet in Europe. On average, Europeans only live about as well as those in the poorest American state, Mississippi.

Where Europeans are better off, perhaps, is in terms of leisure -- they have a lot of it. According to the Union Bank of Switzerland, the typical European has two to three times as many paid days off per year as Americans. And according to Eurostat, Europeans don't put in much of a workday, either. According to the report, the typical European only does a bit more than five hours of gainful work per day, with Norwegians at the low end at four hours, 56 minutes per day, and (surprisingly) the French at the high end at five hours, 44 minutes per day.

One reason for the short workday is that Europeans seem to get sick a lot more than Americans. According to a July 25 report in The New York Times, on an average day 25 percent of Norway's workers call in sick. A 2002 study in Sweden found that the average worker there took more than 30 sick days per year. Makes you wonder just how good their health care systems really are.

As a consequence, aggregate hours worked are much lower in Europe than in the United States. According to a new report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, last year the average American worked 1,792 hours. By contrast, the average Frenchman worked just 1,453 hours and the average German worked only 1,446 hours. Twenty-five years ago, annual hours worked in Europe were much closer to those here.

The OECD blames the unwillingness of Europeans to work as the principal reason for the lower output per worker and their lower standard of living compared with Americans. "Research has clearly established a remarkable fact: namely, that the sizable U.S. advantage in real GDP per capita ... is largely due to differences in total hours worked per capita," the report states. It urges European governments to reform their labor policies to increase work hours, a recommendation seconded in a recent report from the International Monetary Fund.

Unfortunately, neither the OECD nor the IMF has any real explanation for why Europeans take so much leisure time. However, a new study by economist Edward Prescott of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis provides the answer. He says that Europe's higher taxes explain almost all the difference in labor force participation rates between Europe and here. He notes that when European tax levels were comparable to those here, work hours were similar. But as Europe's taxes have risen, workers responded by working less.

Consequently, tax cuts in Europe would raise labor supplies, increase output and raise the standard of living. For example, if France reduced its tax burden from 60 percent of GDP to 40 percent, the average Frenchman would be able to consume 19 percent more over his lifetime than he does now. This is a very large impact.

In short, Europeans don't work because it just doesn't pay to work after the government takes its cut. And because welfare benefits are so high, the cost of not working is low. Thus, when workers compare what they make after-tax with what they can make by doing nothing, the gap is very small.

Taxes on labor, not earnings, have been stolen at a rate of over 55 %. WHY do you think most Americans really don't put their heart and mind into their work. Its obvious and we are not that far behind Europe.

Which party wants higher taxes and which wants lower taxes?

Never vote for a democrat ever again.

Isn't it ?

How funny some Americans go around professing the virtues of competition while scorning anybody who actually competes with them.

I like it here in Europe. People still have a sense of solidarity and equity. We talk less about freedom because we actually exert it. We take our privacy laws seriously here, where they are actually enforced. We understand that the foundation of a stable society resides in a bit more for the majority and a bit less for the few.

And perhaps the most important, we don't judge the value of a society or individuals in dollars and cents as you just did, but rather ask ourselves how happy we live, how healthy are we, how safe our cities are, how well our grandparents are taken care of, how many of our kids will get a decent education, how clean is the air we breathe, the water we drink. We know that privatization of social services doesn't work and understand that sometimes you have to simply take more time to care about people, even if that means spend less time at work and earn less.

We don't like to project our influence by the means of weapons like the Bush administration is so fond of, as we understand that such empires are short-lived. Believe us, we've traveled this route many times and know its cost.

And no, we don't hate you and still welcome you wholeheartedly. Even after the insults, superior overtones and childish demonization of any country that, horror, has the arrogance to question the imperial agenda of Mr. Bush as France and Germany did.

We are sorry if this doesn't fit the version of your reality; we forgive you in advance because we understand how cunning and well-funded your "liberal" media is in convincing you how to think.

Your Founding Fathers would be sad to see the encroachment of corporations and of the military-industrial complex in American governance. We are also subject to this plague here in Europe but I can say with assurance that it never reaches the abhorent level seen in Washington.

Wishing you well, America, and congratulations to Mr. Armstrong for winning again the Tour this year. He is all what we like in Americans, speed, persistence, courage and sportmanship. May America return to the spirit of its humble beginnings and be again the source of good things it used to be.

A European friend,

Nice reassuring cliches.

>>>> It's the truth. America is dynamic; Europe is static...and sadly going the way of the dinosaur.

How funny some Americans go around professing the virtues of competition while scorning anybody who actually competes with them.

>>>> That’s part of the "game" capitalism entails. Yet I feel we're a lot more severe when it comes to fair play than other nations. The corruption here is negligible compared to the corruption in Europe. BTW, I notice you don't bother naming the particular country of "Europe" where you're habitating.?

I like it here in Europe. People still have a sense of solidarity and equity. We talk less about freedom because we actually exert it. We take our privacy laws seriously here, where they are actually enforced.

>>> There's much to love in Europe but we are not Europe. There is furniture in England older than our country. However, everywhere the spirit of nations is failing, except in Muslim countries.

We understand that the foundation of a stable society resides in a bit more for the majority and a bit less for the few.

>>> We've got some of that here too, but it's directly opposed to what America's about. Socialism always goes too far. Europe is dying. It's killing the incentive of good people to work and to have families. Why bother, when the State can take away everything you own at any time?

And perhaps the most important, we don't judge the value of a society or individuals in dollars and cents as you just did.

>>> I see nothing in a column about worker productivity that suggests the worth of human beings is relative to their earning power. When the American worker is allowed to keep a larger share of the wealth s/he helps make possible, s/he works even harder. Wealth is a celebration of the individual, not a curse on those without it. There are those shallow fools in every land who think wealth equals human greatness, but they are just that, fools.

but rather ask ourselves how happy we live, how healthy are we, how safe our cities are, how well our grandparents are taken care of, how many of our kids will get a decent education, how clean is the air we breathe, the water we drink.

>>> The crime rates where guns are banned in Europe are high. The price of gasoline is outrageous. Only the very wealthy can ever hope to own their homes anymore in England. Legal euthanasia in the Netherlands. Jewish persecution in France and Germany. Europe is not without its share of problems.



We know that privatization of social services doesn't work

>>>> That's odd, it appears to be working just fine here.

and understand that sometimes you have to simply take more time to care about people, even if that means spend less time at work and earn less.

>>>> There is a definite trade-off to having the guvmint take care of you. Americans are frontier people. We'll take the risks of not being nannied and coddled by our government, altho each day more and more weaklings (democrats) are eager to surrender it all.

We don't like to project our influence by the means of weapons like the Bush administration is so fond of, as we understand that such empires are short-lived. Believe us, we've traveled this route many times and know its cost.

>>>> It's a shame, really, that Europe has lost the spirit of Empire. I'm not talking about the days of yore with colonies and such, but the indomitable spirit. Nations still matter, and European nations surrendering their sovereignty to an abstract like the EU......just doesn't ring right. It's as unnatural as communist loyalty to their State was.

And no, we don't hate you and still welcome you wholeheartedly. Even after the insults, superior overtones and childish demonization of any country that, horror, has the arrogance to question the imperial agenda of Mr. Bush as France and Germany did.

>>>> Appeasement never works when dealing with aggressors. I would think France learned that lesson in WW2 and Germany would be a little less ready to criticize, considering the human costs of its two 20th century misadventures. I don't think Europe is awake to how hot the cannibal's soup cauldron is in which it is 'relaxing.'



We are sorry if this doesn't fit the version of your reality; we forgive you in advance because we understand how cunning and well-funded your "liberal" media is in convincing you how to think.

>>>> The American liberal media is AGAINST the war, in other words, they're on the side of the appeasers. I'm aware of the liberal matrix and the lying sacks of shite that make up 95% of the media here. As I'm not a liberal, I know of whom to steer clear.

>>>> Do they show the videos of Muslim animals sawing off the heads of hostages on European TV? How much more ‘demonic’ to you need a foe before you'll take up arms?

>>> I don't wish to belabor the point, so here you go: Europe is finished. The Muslims already have France in their clutches and England is slowly succumbing to the same. They are taking over and "you" can't say a thing about it because the politically correct thought police are already a reality in Europe. CCTV cameras are everywhere and the citizenry are disarmed. Europe Orwell's vision come to life, far more than anything America’s "Homeland Security" has done here. There is no cross-country heritage or religion to unite you.

>>> Trust me, friend, I do not wish to see what is happening in Europe happen. I've seen the numbers and by sheer birthrates, the Muslims will overrun you. Europeans are not birthing new generations to replace the old. It's happening here in America too. You've been poisoned, as we have, by cultural marxism.

>>> I wish there could be peace, but the Muslim world is now the Evil Empire. They're not as advanced militarily but there are simply more of them, and unlike Christianity which has grown weak and faithless, the Muslim faith, however backwards, is strong.

>>> Now that the Soviet threat is no more, Europe and America are going their separate ways. It's sad that our interests are no longer the same, because without us, Europe is going to cave in to Muslim evil even faster. Witness Spain's cowardice.

>>> I hope the time you have left is pleasant. We will lose some of the larger jewels once proudly embedded in the crown of Western Civilization when Europe finished its collapse into a Third World Muslim nightmare.

>>> God Save the Queen.

It was so biased, it was unreal.

The reason why Europeans call in sick, while Americans don't, is because we go to work when we're sick. How many people take off time every single time they get sick? Maybe the upper management do, but everyone else just takes a Contac and keeps working.

The big crime in American health care is the resurgence of tuberculosis. TB. We were supposed to have eliminated that disease. We lack health care resources to eliminate a simple bacterial infection.

Back to work: the report neglects that a great deal of the productivity in the big cities in the US is due to lower-paid immigrant labor. The statistical fact of high productivity and a high quality of life is probably based on a divided population of overworked immigrants, and high-living natives. The proportion of immigrants in Europe is lower, so, this gap is not as significant. This is changing, however.

Across the board, as taxes rise, the people who do most of the work -- the working class -- will work less. More of their basic needs will be satisfied by the welfare state. They also gain their right to work less through organizing, and will tend to reduce their work to the minimum necessary for survival.

As taxes drop, social services are cut, and the working class are forced into a subsistence existence, and will work harder to avoid starvation and death.

Typically, when enough people are starving, riots start to happen, and armies form to kill the wealthy and take their property. At this point, the government intervenes and kills their own people. This is what happens in other countries.

In America, this situation of riot is avoided by increasing imports, and reducing the overall cost of living. The working class are made beneficiaries of imperialist expansion. First, it was Made in Japan, then Made in Korea, we skipped over Made in Vietnam because we lost there, next it'll be Made in Iraq. Wal-Mart and Target and 99c Only are pushing real hard for Made in China.

Illegal immigration also serves as a release valve against mass uprisings. They are the super exploited slaves in the system, and help make life affordable for the poor, while creating profits for the middle class. You need to keep bringing new ones over, because after a decade or two, the "illegals" become legal residents, and start feeling like they have more rights.

This is the American way, circa 2004. Just go to any big store, and you'll see it in action.

I think the main reason why Europe is more "civilized" is due to the fact that they've been in the imperialism game a lot longer, and have more wealth in their cities and towns. They're a wealthier society, despite their allegedly low incomes and high taxes. Western European nations generally have a higher standard of living than America.

America is basically a European nation. We're just getting larger, later. One way we're doing it is through immigration, particularly of the intellectual middle classes and even the international capitalists, to fuel business growth here.

I believe it was a column based on facts, not an article.

If you're hungry for pure propaganda, may I suggest the New York Times.