| These are not like for like, because they ignore the relative value of different market segments and of comparative advantage. Germany produces high-value consumer and industrial engineering products, and financial services. Greece produces tourism and olive oil. Should Greece somehow be forced to produce lifts, yachts, and high-status cars, or is that actually an unworkable - not to mention unhelpful - idea? This is a major flaw with the current set-up of the EU. Euro adoption has made it very hard for countries to balance imports and exports. Germany has a huge current account surplus, while Southern Europe has an equivalent deficit. These are structural issues and nothing to do with working hours or even with bad management. A completely homogenised EU - or international - economy would be a monster. There's no reason why countries should compete directly on GDP when they have such different products and services to offer. But there's nothing in current GDP accounting that supports diverse economic activity without attempting to penalise it. The ideal would be wealth redistribution between countries. The EU does some of that, but in a slightly random way that seems to lack a coherent EU-wide long-term development strategy. Edit: it would be interesting to break out the US figures on a state by state basis. I suspect we'd see some very large disparities between the most and least productive states. |