Re: “What happens when Europeans find out how poor they are?” Nothing. We found out years ago, had a long hard look at the alternative, and decided we’d rather not. GDP is what you get when you put Jeff Bezos and a man sleeping in a Walmart car park into a spreadsheet and take the average. It tells you the country is rich. It does not tell you that a hundred million people inside it are quietly not. And it certainly doesn’t mention the bill: nearly forty trillion in federal debt, another eighteen on the households. This is a man pulling up to valet parking in a leased Lamborghini and calling himself rich because nobody at the table has yet asked to see his bank statement. Meanwhile, on every parameter that matters to a human being who is alive and would like to remain so in reasonable spirits, Europe wins. The food. The streets. The holidays. The summer that contains an actual summer. The Tuesday afternoon that contains an actual lunch. Keep the GDP. We’ll keep the life.