If European nations were admitted as states into the America union, they would be our poor, dependent cousins.
If the UK, France, or Italy became U.S. states, they would rank as the 5th poorest of the states, ahead only of Arkansas, Montana, West Virginia, and Mississippi. The richest EU country - Ireland - would be the 13th poorest. Sweden would be the 6th poorest.
“Good economic development, in other words, results in even poor people being relatively well off in the states,” wrote Dr. Fredrik Bergström, President of The Swedish Research Institute of Trade, Robert Gidehag in the book “Sweden versus the US.”
“Hence, the EU no longer is – or is seen as – the great economic liberator of Europe.”
In other words, a redneck driving a pick-up with a gun rack lives better than European gentry.
In the 1990s, U.S. growth was twice that of Europe’s, and three times that of Japan’s. The U.S. per capita income is now 55% higher than the EU-15 average, and 50% higher than Japan’s.
Thank you. That's the info.
Was it in the full text of this CIA report? Where did you find it?
Ireland is the richest country in Europe? This alone shows how wrong this so-called report is(so please stop citing it as definitive fact).
Go to http://www.worldbank.org , and you will see that Luxembourg, in term of both GNI and PPP, is by far the richest country in Europe(I am sure it will rank pretty well among US states).