[marcusf]

What I took offence to was comparing Europe as a whole to America. It doesn't necessarily make sense given the different make-up of the continents.

I have to volt-face that a bit though in that I was a bit surprised at both unemployment rate and labor force participation rates between EU and US. I.e. this graph didn't look like what I was prejudiced to think: http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.ZS/countries...

It's crazy listening to US rhetoric about the job market given your relatively low unemployment, high labor force participation and relatively high average salaries.