Comments by "Paul Aiello" (@paul1979uk2000) on "Why Europe Fell Behind the United States" video.

  1. You know, I keep hearing about the decline of Europe or in this case, the EU, and I've been hearing about this for decades, mostly from the US and UK. Yet, when I look at a lot of the statistics that matter to the average person, EU countries are actually doing really well, especially when it comes to quality of life, something that Europe more or less dominants the top 10 spots. Now if we are talking about the balance of power shifting, then yes it is shifting away from the EU, but it's also shifting away from the US and pretty much every other modern country, and mainly because of Asia, the simple truth is, Asia is growing at an impressive rate, they also have a much bigger population than what we see in the EU or US. So this isn't so much about the EU or US going into decline, but more about the balance of power and economics is changing in the world, in other words, Asia is likely going to be far more important than either the EU or US, unless the EU does some major expanding with new countries, the simple truth is, Asia has by far a bigger population than the EU or US, as the economy keeps closing the gap with the west, it's unrealistic to think the EU or US could hold onto power or be the main blocks when it comes to economics, that's shifting towards Asia. With all that said, that doesn't mean the EU or US citizens are falling behind, as an individual, the quality of life is still going to be high, especially in the EU, but it does mean as a group, both the EU and US will slowly fall behind, simply because we just don't have the population numbers to compete, but for the average person, it really doesn't matter. At the end of the day, GDP numbers are becoming a poor indicator of the well-being of a country and a big part of the reason is with how it's calculated, as in, the more equal a society is, the more meaning GDP has, the US isn't very equal by modern standards, hence why the US has been said to be a first, second and third World country all rolled in one, it's crazy that any modern country can be classed as that, but it goes to show that there are a lot of problems in the US, far more than other modern countries, and since the Trump years, those problems seem to be getting worse, now ask the average American, do they actually care about GDP numbers or how much of a share it's GDP is to the world? Somehow I doubt it, I suspect most don't even know what the numbers are, but they do care about living standards and the quality of life.
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  2. As long as the countries are open, democratic and free, it would be difficult to fall behind other modern countries because that openness forces countries to adapt and change, hence why if you look at all modern countries, the difference from them all isn't really that different, apart from the US which is a bit of a weird one when it comes to public services, equality and well-being of its citizens, especially when it comes to lowering standards in so many areas, whereas Europe, well EU countries, quality of living is more or less in line with other modern countries around the world.
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  3.  @stephenjenkins7971  Maybe not, but let's be blunt about this, what do most people care about when living in any country? it's not going to be how much money they make or how well the GDP is or unemployment numbers, they are going to care about quality of life, safety and many other factors like that, and when you look at a lot of indexes online, the EU countries dominant the top 10 in those areas, whereas the US has actually started to go in reverse, especially when Trump got into power, but that trend is continuing under Biden. You also have to put things into context, in the US, workers rights are quite poor compared to the EU, there's no mandated-paid holidays and countless other standards are lower than in the EU, in other words, the US is lowering standards to try and boost economic growth to keep up with the Asian powers, the EU countries are not doing that and you only have to look at many of the indexes online to see how the US is slipping behind other modern countries at quite an alarming rate over the last 10 years. Now if profit is all that matters, knock yourself out, but the reality is that in the US, so much wealth is being concentrated in so few hands that the GDP numbers are not really telling you a clear picture, more so that the numbers of Americans leaving the US for the EU is rising, but more shocking, there are countless videos of Americans on YouTube saying the same thing that they are leaving the US because they want a better quality of life, but what shocks me the most is how many are saying eastern EU countries have a better quality of life then the US, seriously thought, how can that be? Eastern EU countries are still developing and catching up to western EU countries. You want to know something ironic about all this, what's happening in the US with lowering standards to try and keep up with the rising Asians powers? Japan tried the same thing to try and keep up with the US decades ago, it didn't end well for them and it's looking like the US could be going down the same path in trying to lower so many standards to try and keep pace with what's going on in Asia, the EU thankfully are not following that model, there's more to life than that, which ironically, even in Europe, it's the smaller countries that dominant the higher quality of life index. Also, for the record, Asia is rising regardless of the EU or US, there's a reason why the US is getting tough on China, it's because they fear them rising as a power, basically, the US is trying to prevent that from happening, but the reality is, both the EU and US put together are not going to be able to prevent Asia rising, simply put, they've got by far a bigger population then us and as they continue to modernise, it's shifting the balance of power from west to east, the EU isn't concern by that but the US is, hence why the views on China are quite different around the world then they are in the US.
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  4. A.I. was never going to get banned, at least not long term, but clearly there are concerns around A.I. As for adoption, A.I. will likely be adopted all over the world in areas it makes sense for boosting productivity. I honestly think A.I. could become far bigger of a problem for the US than it will be for the EU, and the main reason for that is once A.I. really gets good and starts taking over a lot of jobs, taking over more jobs than we can create, you really have to wonder how the social system in the US would cope with that, would it throw them under a bus? Probably unless there's a big uprise. In contrast to EU countries, they've already got a far better social system in place compared to the US, it wouldn't take much to push it further to supporting a universal basic allowance, something that A.I. could force on us by pushing a lot of us out of work and I think EU countries have a major advantage over the US in how the system is structured. It's going to be interesting to see how the EU, US and others around the world deals with A.I. taking over so many jobs and how they adapt to it and honestly, going of the systems we see around the world, I think the Europeans in the EU are the lucky ones as they are unlikely to be thrown under a bus like the US seems to throw it's citizens under.
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  5. I can contest to that, I live in the UK and I've lost count of the amount of times the government likes to brag about how well the GDP is doing or how low unemployment is, yet when I look at a lot of the core quality of life indexes, the UK is falling behind other EU countries, especially since Brexit, as for the US, there's a similar pattern but it's been going on for around 2 decades and is getting worse since Trump got power, in fact, the US seems to be accelerating when it comes to falling behind other modern countries when it comes to quality of life. GDP and GDP per capital is a poor indicator on the well-being of the citizens in a country and it's actually quite misleading in many ways. At the end of the day, what really matters to the average citizen, GDP numbers or quality of life of the people? which European countries dominant the top 10 in those indexes, whereas the UK and US are slowly slipping further behind. Another factor we should remember, it's easier to have higher economic growth if the standards are lower in a country, that can be from anything like far less paid holidays to working longer hours, to lower food standards and countless more, when a country is willing to cut corners at the expense of its citizens, higher growth is more attainable. I'm grateful that EU countries are not willing to cut corners as drastic as the US is, because that only hurts the citizens of the country in the end, after all, how on earth can you have so many Americans on YouTube that say they've got a better quality of life in Europe if the stats want us to think otherwise? Many even say eastern EU countries is giving them a higher quality of living then the US did, which is crazy when you think about it with the eastern EU countries still developing to catch up with the western EU countries. Something has to be seriously wrong in the US for that to be possible and it probably boils down to more of a focus on quality of life over profits, which I don't know about anyone else, I'll take quality of life anyway over the rest.
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