[lbo-talk] The EU vs the US

[Dennis Redmond]

> I have no idea who Timbro is or what they stand for, but this is some
> interesting reading; it's starts like this:
>
>>> IF THE EU WERE A PART of the United States of America,
>>> would it belong to the richest or the poorest group of states?
>
> http://www.timbro.se/bokhandel/pdf/9175665646.pdf

They use purchasing power parity indexes, which are notoriously opaque.
Here are the global top 20, using Eurostat's per capita numbers, based on
2003 data and current exchange rates (1.2 $ = 1 EUR):

Region         Annual EUR per capita
------------------------------------
Luxembourg     48,919
Norway         39,366
Switzerland    36,571
Denmark        33,670
US             31,391
Japan          30,562
Ireland        29,158
Sweden         27,912
Netherlands    26,573
Finland        26,231
Austria        25,879
Germany        25.037
Belgium        24,714
France         24,341
UK             23,481
Canada         21,196
Italy          21.011
Australia      20,088
Hong Kong      18,831
Israel         18,800

Note that the US advantage disappears completely when you factor in total
working hours -- the EU countries have shorter annual working hours,
10-15% less than the US on average.

-- DRR