America is in fact significantly richer than Europe, but America is rich in a bunch of less visible stuff. Our houses are bigger, with more furniture, electronics, air conditioning, etc. Our universities do more research and are more comfortable with lots of ancillary amenities like gyms and dorms, and advising services European schools don’t bother with. Our healthcare system has all the latest equipment and subsidizes the R&D that European systems tap. None of that is visible to a tourist. But it improves life in many ways (including life in European countries that get to have smaller militaries and more advanced healthcare than they’d get if America disappeared) What we don’t have is a lot of beautiful buildings that were built 150 years ago.
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