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The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

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Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#531

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a history of relocating to the US or american culture and language being extremely present all over western society? Well these just reinforce his point

This history suggests there was opportunity at one point, at least. The culture/language being widespread doesn't say anything about the USA being better. How does that reinforce his point?

People still move there because it offers significantly better opportunities for most high-skilled people?

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#532
post #202

Was the UK included then excluded from the data? Perhaps explains the stagnation in the data How much does the FED has printed vs the ECB? How much of EU's economy was affected by the US extraterritoriality legislation? https://www.rferl.org/a/1095057.html https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1665370246126125060

> Was the UK included then excluded from the data? Perhaps explains the stagnation in the data The chart says "Eurozone". Either you 1) didn't read the chart, or 2) don't know that the UK was never a part of the Eurozone. If 1), read the discussed thing the next time before discussing it. If 2), never speak about economics in public again.

The title and tweet both say "EU".

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say that now. I bet you are going to be dancing by a different tune at 70.

Think you're intentionally misreading what I'm saying, thanks for that

It was actually sarcasm?

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#534

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I’d like to point out that the open door policy to refugees came because Europe was trying to escape the demographic trap and the collapse of the social safety net. The hope was that young refugees would become net positive GDP contributors for decades, an idea borrowed from the US. If that has failed, it’s due to a failure of integration. Europe can actually be quite a racist place and in many ways the US is better…

> idea borrowed from the US. If that has failed, it’s due to a failure of integration.

Yeah, that sounds like 'blaming the victim'

This is not a magical solution where you bring people and the GDP magically increases

It works in the US due to a variety of factors, but I agree with you that being a bit less racist at the same time pushing them to success (read: sink or swim) helps. Oh and the US has much less tolerance for people who come with bad intent and deports a lot more

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I earn $100k somewhere in Eastern Europe, then deducting all taxes and recurring costs like health insurance, rent or mortgage, from what’s left I may be able to buy more MacBooks or trips to Korea than someone from San Francisco. It is misleading to compare just a few imported goods to make conclusions as well.

You’ll be surprised at how much housing costs in Eastern Europe these days…

Sure increased but do people spend like 3k USD/m to rent something? In Poland you can still rent something for 1k USD even in Warsaw. Go to Bulgaria and rent is dirty cheap in places like Bansko you pay $400 or less for 1 month rental even using AirBNB.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#537
post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is about the European Union, of which the UK was a part, not the Eurozone (where they use the Euro as currency).

The chart in the linked tweet labels it Eurozone.[0] [0]: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1P4FUgWAAIMWAd?format=jpg&name=...

But the title and tweet do NOT label it Eurozone. They label it EU.

That rather makes it poor communication, no?

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#538

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the gap is actually people doing pension fraud due to overly generous state benefits.

Why do you think that?

https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/2019/8/8/20758813/secrets-u...

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/704080v2.full

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#539
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't. Growth in the economy has to increase real wages, and real wages need to keep pace with housing, food, healthcare, etc increases in order to be meaningful. More jobs are only good if they actually provide a living wage.

> More jobs are only good if they actually provide a living wage. This is false if you spend even a few seconds thinking about it. Not all jobs are intended to "live" off of. Most of your entry-level jobs were supposed to be for highschool and college kids working part time. The problem is we have more and more people never graduating out of entry level positions, and today we have folks demanding those entry level p…

> Most of your entry-level jobs were supposed to be for highschool and college kids working part time

Did McDonalds used to be closed during weekdays when all their cooks and register staff were in school? I don't remember that.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#540
post #461

The title is misleading. The Eurozone does not include the entire EU - there are quite a few countries with their own currencies(notably Czechia, Poland, Romania), which coincidentally saw some of the highest growths in the region during the last two decades. Meanwhile some Eurozone countries like Greece, Italy and Spain actually saw a decline. Hard not to draw such conclusions when your set includes all the troubled…

>which coincidentally saw some of the highest growths in the region during the last two decades. That isn't some coincidence. The biggest beneficiary of the Eurozone relies on the suffering of its less successful members and this is ultimately reflected by the fact that poorer countries in the Eurozone don't catch up with the rest of the EU and in fact the opposite happens. Meanwhile for EU countries outside the Euro…

I think it’s more about western vs eastern Europe.

EE countries which adopted the Euro did quite good as well. For instance growth in Poland lagged significantly behind Estonia or Lithuania in the last 10 years or so.

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