Europe Has Fallen Behind the U.S. and China. Can It Catch Up? (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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A “competitiveness crisis” is raising alarms for officials and business leaders in the European Union, where investment, income and productivity are lagging.

Europe’s share of the global economy is shrinking, and fears are deepening that the continent can no longer keep up with the United States and China.

“We are too small,” said Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister who recently delivered a report on the future of the single market to the European Union.

“We are not very ambitious,” Nicolai Tangen, head of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, told The Financial Times. “Americans just work harder.”

“European businesses need to regain self-confidence,” Europe’s association of chambers of commerce declared.

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[-] KevonLooney@lemm.ee 50 points 6 months ago

Europe has a lot of things that are not reflected in GDP: health outcomes, good food, nice places to live, etc. There's a reason why it's a top vacation destination. China is not really comparable as most people would choose to live in Europe over China.

The US is more comparable, and is a better place to invest than Europe. But "competitiveness" is usually a euphemism for "cut wages and benefits". I am skeptical about this.

[-] Hugh_Jeggs@lemm.ee 22 points 6 months ago

I should be careful about talking about work-life balance, but the Americans just work harder

In other words, they have to have three jobs just to survive. NYT really cherry picking that phrase there

[-] Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 months ago

Indeed, working hard is not a virtue in and of itself.

[-] TaTTe@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Yup, if someone works "harder" they're either being exploited or they live in a less advanced society where technology doesn't help the working class as much.

[-] absquatulate@lemmy.world 38 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Summary: Newspaper owned by american billionaire claims workers on the other continent should work harder.

I find it hilarious that they had to cherry pick some two-word sentences from those people to try and squeeze in the point, because otherwise their texts would've sounded more nuanced and we can't have that in a hard-working society.

What is worrying though, is that europe's share in the global market is shrinking, because at this point pretty much only they ( and to a lesser degree the US ) try to uphold somewhat higher ethical standards for the various industries. At this rate the world will be all abused workers and underwhelming products in just a couple decades.

[-] psvrh@lemmy.ca 26 points 6 months ago

Because dying for GDP is the only thing that matters.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 23 points 6 months ago

Americans just work harder

No. Productivity isn't raised by working harder long term. It's raised by more and newer machines, more education, etc. A coal miner from 1900 cannot outwork a 2024 coal miner no matter how hard they work.

[-] autotldr@lemmings.world 1 points 6 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

“Our organization, decision-making and financing are designed for ‘the world of yesterday’ — pre-Covid, pre-Ukraine, pre-conflagration in the Middle East, pre-return of great power rivalry,” said Mario Draghi, a former president of the European Central Bank who is heading a study of Europe’s competitiveness.

At the same time, Beijing and Washington are funneling hundreds of billions of dollars into expanding their own semiconductor, alternative energy and electric car industries, and upending the world’s free trade regime.

The built-in challenges of getting more than two dozen countries to act as a single unit have sharpened in the face of rapid technological advancement, growing international conflicts and the increased use of national policies to steer business.

In Mr. Draghi’s view, public and private investment in the European Union needs to rise by an additional half a trillion euros a year ($542 billion) on the digital and green transitions alone to keep pace.

Without pooling public financing and creating a single capital market, they argue, Europe will not be able to make the kind of investments in defense, energy, supercomputing and more that are required to compete effectively.

Last month, 13 groups in Europe wrote an open letter warning that greater market consolidation would harm consumers, workers and small businesses and give corporate giants too much influence, causing prices to rise.

The original article contains 1,216 words, the summary contains 218 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[-] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works -2 points 6 months ago

I wonder if there is some way to filter NY Times articles out of my feed

[-] stoly@lemmy.world 1 points 6 months ago

Nobody made you come into this thread.

[-] Shardikprime@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Literally this

this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024

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