Are you sure the claim is true that the US has grown so much faster? It is true, if you define growth by conventional stats. 1/

But the US drops in ranking if, for example, you subtract health care from GDP (of every country in your dataset). 2/

If you think the US does not overall provide more welfare conducive health care than European states (a pretty easy claim to support!), then health care’s larger share of GDP in the US should not count as prosperity. 3/

The claim generalizes. Mechanically, rentierism increases GDP. If good internet costs twice as much here, because telecoms are not competitive, that’s scored as greater GDP. 4/

Magazines like The Economist will talk about US outperformance. But they implicitly view the world from the perspective of investors. Most people’s welfare is not primarily a function of financial investment returns. But they persuade us this is a valid, “objective” way to look at the world. 5/

Rentierism is real growth, from investors’ perspective. It is extraction from everybody else’s perspective. 6/

The contemporary United States is not to be emulated. It is a cautionary tale. Europe’s social difficulties stem from having taken too much inspiration from the US, not from failing to follow in US footsteps sufficiently. Careful what you wish for. /fin