Actually yes, we do know. It is not “those immigrants”. The information is easily collected by crossing birth rate and revenue (not to mention dozens of demographic studies on just that topic).

This might have something to do with Sweden’s high birth rate…a larger percentage of the population are first generation immigrants than in the US.

Again, we do know that it is Swedish people in general, not only immigrants and their offsprings that are responsible for Sweden relatively high birth rate.

while listening to NPR this morning i heard the venerable daniel shorr say that western europe continues to resist giving up it’s social policies to satisfy the requirements of the market economy

Mmhhmm. And that envy of the u.s. explains other things too? Just curious.

The irony of that is not lost.

That is not very convincing – in my opinion, I hasten to add. By the OECD stats, Luxembourg – a rather small, tax haven in the EU - has a higher per capita GDP than America but few believe Luxembourg has much international political clout beyond the EU.

OTOH, by world standards, China’s per capita GDP is not very high but, by reports, China has recently overtaken Britain to gain the status of the world’s fourth largest economy in terms of GDP. China is not only a nuclear power but it has put up orbiting, manned satellites. Pundits are saying that by the mid 2020s, China will likely have the world’s largest economy even though its per capita GDP will not have overtaken America’s or Europe’s. Sheer size of GDP brings clout. A small share of a large national GDP is sufficient to fund a national space programme. We are going to have to adjust our perspectives on global clout, I think.

The larger, mainland European economies undoutedly have serious problems – sluggish GDP growth, ageing populations, birth rates below replacement level and unsustainable fiscal commitments to fund social welfare programmes – although Schroeder’s government in Germany did push through many genuine reforms of welfare entitlement and employment protection which seem to be yielding positive employment benefits.

The Economist is almost certainly right in its observation the extent and causes of Europe’s problems are not widely appreciated in Europe – and nor is the dynamism of the American economy. However, there are features of European economies which may surprise casual spectators. It would be wrong to jump to a conclusion that the European social model – with generous welfare benefits and employment protection – is to blame for Europe’s economic problems.

The paradox is that the Nordic countries in Europe have among the highest tax burdens as well as strong historic traditions of state intervention to manage national economies but they also have among the most dynamic and least sluggish economies in Europe. It seems probable that countries with smaller national populations are better able to generate and sustain a popular consensus about the course of policies necessary for statist management of national economies than is feasible in the large economies – hence the recent riots in France and the election result in Italy showing the electorate almost evenly split.

On European social models, this is worth reading:

Andre Sapir: Globalization and the Reform of European Social Models – Background document for presentation at ECOFIN Informal Meeting in Manchester, 9 September 2005
http://www.bruegel.org/Repositories/Documents/publications/working_papers/EN_SapirPaper080905.pdf

Summary and commentary here: http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-146338-16&type=PolicyNews

P O’Neill: Would George Bush be able to run deficits of $400bn a year if interest rates reacted the way they used to to deficits of that size?

How did interest rates used to react?

soru: Maybe I am missing some sarcasm or pedantry or something, but the link you posted gives 2004 France GDP per head as 29711, USA as 39653, about 33% higher.

abb1: Hmm, I’m not an expert, but it appears that 29711 is about 25% lower than 39653.

39653 is about 33% more than 29711. 29711 is about 25% less than 39653.

Shhhhhhhhhh. When one is bashing European countries for low birth rates, one is supposed to conveniently forget that immigrants and their children are pushing up US population growth rates.