Can't edit anymore, but this little factoid:
> More importantly, even GDP per Capita wise:
>
> https://data.oecd.org/gdp/gross-domestic-product-gdp.htm
>
> EU per Capita GDP in 2022 is the same as USA 2016. Was the USA in 2016 struggling but now isn't?
>
> This is all bullshit. Economic output is more than high enough and rising steadily. The problem remains solely in the distribution of the ouptut.
The conclusion that economic output has been rising steadily, even in the last couple of years, is true. But the 2016 vs 2022 numbers are nominal, thus useless. There is a much more significant difference over time when working in PPP/Inflation adjusted numbers:
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-worldbank?...
The overall point holds though: The economic output of the EU is at 45K per capita today, the level of the US in 1997. The US was not a poor country in 1997. Germany is at the economic output per capita of 2009.
Did the US in 1997 suffer from the problem that it didn't produce enough economic output? Of course not.
And given that, adjusting for inflation, GDP per capita is at an all-time high, the conclusion that you're poorer because economic production is distributed to others is necessarily true. And it tracks, too. Corporate profits and the Dow Jones are not down. The already extremely wealthy have accumulated nearly two thirds of the new wealth being created since 2020:
https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/richest-1-bag-nearly...
> Billionaire wealth surged in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits. The report shows that 95 food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022. They made $306 billion in windfall profits, and paid out $257 billion (84 percent) of that to rich shareholders. The Walton dynasty, which owns half of Walmart, received $8.5 billion over the last year. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of major energy corporations, has seen this wealth soar by $42 billion (46 percent) in 2022 alone.
Given these facts, if we have to accept lower economic production in the name of a fairer distribution of economic production, that seems more than acceptable to me.