[kasey_junk]

I think the concern is the fiscal ability for eu nations to continue to pay for the things that help it stay high on those metrics, especially without innovation.

The productivity numbers for the eu are dreadful so something needs to change.

[TheOtherHobbes]

The distribution of productivity gains in the US is beyond dreadful, so something needs to change.

Besides, it's screamingly obvious the US has literally chosen to pivot back to the Middle Ages, so even these captured productivity differences won't be an issue for much longer.

[graemep]

How is the US anything like the Middle Ages?

You did say literally so can you do a point by point comparison?

We have other people claiming the US is fascist and one of the aims of fascism was to take European culture and religion back to before the Middle Ages - they wanted to emulate the Roman Empire.

[badestrand]

That's because many European countries now already had 4 months of basically all media reporting daily of how Trump is dismantling the US.

Public perception for many people is that the US is on its way to become a failed state.

[closewith]

> The productivity numbers for the eu are dreadful so something needs to change.

A happy, healthy society does not need to change to meet capitalist productivity goals. Consumption is killing the world, led proudly by the US.

What needs to change are the metrics we use to judge a society, because if financial success leads to the United States, that's the cautionary tale for the rest of the world, not the example.

[kasey_junk]

That may be true if the things driving quality of life metrics don’t require productivity. But many of them clearly do (e.g. social security for the aged in the face of demographic shrinking).