Europe vs. the United States
| Author | Prakash Loungani |
| Position | IMF External Relations Department |
| Pages | 1-9 |
Page 1
Does it matter if Europeans don't make as much money as Americans? At least they have time to enjoy the truly important things in life, such as family and friends. Or is it a bit more complicated than that? Maybe more Europeans wouldn't mind working longer hours if the rewards were commensurate with the efforts. Prakash Loungani reviews four books on this topic.
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Is a new "United States of Europe" eclipsing the United States of America as an economic superpower? Four new books contrast European and U.S. socioeconomic paradigms and find much they wish each would learn from the other.
In The European Dream, Jeremy Rifkin, president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C., says "Europeans should congratulate themselves on creating the most humane approach to capitalism ever attempted," one where the emphasis is on the quality of life. This is, he says, what an economy should be all about-namely, "access to a decent education, assuring our good health, providing adequate care for our children, and living in safe neighborhoods and communities.
In most of these particulars, the European Union (EU) has already surpassed the United States of America."
To support his assertion, Rifkin marshals an array of social indicators: European children outscore U.S. children in reading and mathematics; infant mortality is lower and life expectancy higher among the EU countries; the United States does not provide health care for its citizens; and homicide and incarceration rates in the United States are much higher than in the EU.
Rifkin concludes that while Europe "is not yet ready to abandon" GDP as a yardstick of progress, "that a world superpower is seriously engaged in the process of rethinking" what makes for a good economy "is nothing short of revolutionary."
Not that Europe comes out too shabbily in comparisons of GDP, Rifkin adds. European aggregate productivity levels-GDP per hour of work-are well over 90 percent of the U.S. level. That European per capita incomes are only about 70 percent of the U.S. level is largely due to "the fewer hours worked in the EU," which he regards as a voluntary choice of Europeans.
In Europe, Rifkin-who has shuttled between Europe and the United States since the mid-1980s-sees people lingering for...
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