Most of Europe Is a Lot Poorer Than Most of the United States

Most European countries (including Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium) if they joined the US, would rank among the very poorest US states.

by Daniel J. Mitchell
April 10, 2016

I wrote previously that many European nations are doomed by demographics to fiscal chaos, but a lot of people don’t care that much about the future.

Bernie Sanders, for instance, looks at nations such as Denmark and Sweden today and says that America should copy their expansive welfare states.

Is he right?

Well, it depends on the parameters. If, for some reason, somebody was holding a gun to my head and demanding that we copy the policies of a nation from the European Union, the Nordic countries would be among my top choices. Yes, their welfare states are too large, but they somewhat compensate for that mistake by having very pro-free market policies in other areas.

That being said, Ireland and the United Kingdom have the most economic freedom among EU nations, and Switzerland would be at the top if the choice was broadened to non-EU nations in Europe.

But I’m digressing. Let’s get back to whether people in places such as Denmark (or anywhere else in Euro…