I’m not the only one saying it:

I love it when I take the time to write about something only to have a higher authority confirm it. If anyone gets a chance, today’s Financial Times (the one thing other than the Economist that Europe has over America) has a full-page article about how the U.S. has continually outperformed Europe. The article is titled “A productivity prescription: how the U.S. has pulled away from Europe and Japan”.

Here are some quotes:

“The idea that European economies are bad at exploiting new technology is supported by detailed research in productivity between individual U.S. and UK companies.”

“You could call it the productivity myth. It goes like this. European economies trail behind the U.S. because their citizens would rather people-gaze from a pavement café than labor loyally in the corporate salt mines.”