How About Europe Learning from Mississippi?

In a New York Times editorial last year titled "Learning from Europe" Paul Krugman wrote:

"The story you hear all the time about Europe — of a stagnant economy in which high taxes and generous social benefits have undermined incentives, stalling growth and innovation — bears little resemblance to the surprisingly positive facts. The real lesson from Europe is actually the opposite of what conservatives claim: Europe is an economic success, and that success shows that social democracy works. The European economy works; it grows; it’s as dynamic, all in all, as our own."

The BEA recently released data for the amount of GDP produced by U.S. states in 2010 , which allows for a updated comparison of output per capita in U.S. states (Note: Per-capita GDP is provided by the BEA in 2005 dollars, and those amounts have been adjusted to 2010 dollars for comparison to other countries in 2010) to European countries (and Japan and Canada), see table below (international countries are adjusted for PPP).  Key findings:

1.The European Union as a group ($32,700 GDP (PPP) per capita in 2010) ranks below America's poorest state, Mississippi ($32,764).

2. Even relatively wealthy (by European standards) Switzerland would rank #32 as a U.S. state, behind Georgia.  The countries of Belgium and Germany would rank even lower at #46 and #47, and the U.K., Finland, and France would be close to the bottom of American states, below #48 South Carolina.  

3. Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal all rank below America's poorest state (Mississippi) for GDP per capita.

MP: Paul Krugman's assessment of Europe's economic success bears little resemblance to the surprisingly negative facts, which are actually the opposite of what Krugman claims.  With a few exceptions, the amount of economic output produced per person would rank most European countries among America's poorest states.  And even America's poorest states like Mississippi and West Virginia would rank above average among the countries of Europe.  When it comes to economic success, the data suggest that Europe has a lot more to learn from the U.S. than vice-versa.

 GDP per Capita: U.S. States vs. Europe, Japan and Canada, 2010

Rank	GDP per Capita, 2010
	District of Columbia	$168,327
	Luxembourg	$81,383
1	Alaska	$70,814
2	Delaware	$69,880
3	Wyoming	$68,162
4	Connecticut	$66,022
5	New York	$59,596
6	Massachusetts	$58,339
7	New Jersey	$55,715
8	Virginia	$53,113
9	Colorado	$52,205
	Norway	$52,013
10	California	$51,905
11	North Dakota	$51,882
12	Minnesota	$51,238
13	Maryland	$51,224
14	Washington	$50,912
15	Illinois	$50,581
16	South Dakota	$49,741
17	Texas	$49,119
18	Nebraska	$48,708
19	Hawaii	$48,697
20	Oregon	$48,590
21	Louisiana	$48,068
22	Iowa	$46,791
23	Rhode Island	$46,688
24	New Hampshire	$46,295
25	Nevada	$46,136
26	Kansas	$44,621
27	North Carolina	$44,568
28	Pennsylvania	$44,471
29	Wisconsin	$43,446
30	Indiana	$42,266
31	Georgia	$41,720
	Switzerland	$41,663
32	Utah	$41,528
33	Vermont	$41,290
34	Ohio	$41,240
	Netherlands	$40,765
35	Missouri	$40,515
36	Tennessee	$40,239
37	Florida	$39,988
38	Arizona	$39,910
39	Oklahoma	$39,724
	Austria	$39,634
40	New Mexico	$39,475
	Canada	$39,057
41	Michigan	$38,959
42	Maine	$38,623
	Ireland	$38,550
	Sweden	$38,031
43	Kentucky	$37,209
	Denmark	$36,450
44	Idaho	$36,113
	Belgium	$36,100
	Germany	$36,033
45	Alabama	$36,002
46	Montana	$35,895
47	Arkansas	$35,161
48	South Carolina	$35,034
	United Kingdom	$34,920
	Finland	$34,585
	France	$34,077
	Japan	$33,805
49	West Virginia	$33,738
50	Mississippi	$32,764
	European Union	$32,700
	Spain	$29,742
	Israel	$29,531
	Italy	$29,392
	Greece	$28,434
	Portugal	$23,223