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.
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.
In other words, they have to have three jobs just to survive. NYT really cherry picking that phrase there
Indeed, working hard is not a virtue in and of itself.
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.