Europe Cannot And Never Will Be Able To Compete With The United States

For decades, Europe has pursued economic, social, and environmental policies that have degraded its material and human capacity, possibly beyond recovery.

American Thinker 

President Trump’s confrontation with Europe’s leaders over Ukraine, NATO funding, and Greenland’s sovereignty has triggered many in Europe to openly insinuate that the United States is no longer a reliable ally and is, in fact, an adversary. This tantrum-like reaction to an American president putting his country’s interests first has prompted European leaders to claim that Europe can compete with the U.S. on the world stage and defend itself without American assistance.

But can Europe compete with and take over the role of the United States in NATO? The reality is that Europe stands no chance against the U.S. and never will. Europe also lacks the manufacturing and labor base to produce weapons to defend itself against any major aggressor.

On the surface, the European Union’s 27 member nations, plus the United Kingdom, should be able to compete with the United States. Their combined population is 520 million, compared with 347 million in the United States. Between the EU’s establishment in 1993 and 2008, its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was within ±5 % of that of the United States.

However, during the 16 years between 2008 and 2023, the EU’s GDP grew by just 13.5% (from $16.7 trillion to $18.5 Trillion) while the U.S. GDP grew by 87% (from $14.8 Trillion to $27.8 Trillion), a gap in 2023 of over 50%. This gap will widen further to 65% as the International Monetary Fund predicts that Europe’s GDP will be $23 Trillion by 2030, while the U.S. will hit $38 Trillion.

The primary reason behind this growing disparity is that the EU and the U.S. have long ago chosen different paths and are now experiencing the consequences.

Europe has arrogantly focused on a lifestyle that demands a vast network of exceedingly expensive social safety nets requiring exorbitant taxation, importing millions of immigrants to offset a dwindling native population, mandating numerous paid vacation days, and preserving the past at the expense of the present and future.

Europe has evolved into being the apathetic curator of the world’s largest outdoor museum. It is an entity without a growth-focused system to survive and prosper in a hyper-competitive global economy, while also being confronted by a massive, imported population that is increasingly hostile to that museum’s culture. Immigrants’ hostility and refusal to assimilate means they’re determined to transform their host countries into de facto third-world Islamic enclaves. 

The United States is an economic superpower because it has historically focused on growth, innovation, efficiency, ambition, and the future. This historical focus is again center-stage, and Trump and his team are aggressively promoting it with “America First” policies and their emphasis on manufacturing, innovation, and avoiding Europe’s migrant debacle, not just by stopping unchecked immigration but also by deporting millions of illegal immigrants.

The United States also has the advantage of functioning as a single, massive economic engine the size of the European continent. It is a giant unified market wherein a company can target hundreds of millions of people without dealing with national boundaries, tariffs, onerous regulations, and inexplicable legal impediments—and where a trail-blazing start-up can easily access capital in a business environment that promotes innovation.

As a result, the U.S. not only has far more capital available for investments but also a culture that rewards high-risk ventures. Therefore, it attracts virtually all the world’s best talent and resources. This is why it leads in every major field of technology, from artificial intelligence to aerospace.

On the other hand, the EU comprises 27 countries with diverse languages, laws, and customs. These countries have had to subordinate their nations to the whims of a central, unelected bureaucracy steeped in Euro-socialism. It’s a bureaucracy that is mindlessly focused not on innovation or growth but on regulations, taxes, and tenure, which inevitably foments animosity and resentment among the member nations.

Rather than being an economic superpower, Europe has become a “regulatory superpower.” Instead of promoting innovation, the EU’s bureaucrats are busy writing regulations to control it. As a byproduct of this folly, not only is there little or no innovation, but the best and brightest in Europe’s technology fields are forced to immigrate to the United States to pursue their ambitions.

Meanwhile, European leaders are begging China to dramatically increase its investments and involvement in Europe’s economy, particularly the technology sector. By doing so, Europe will bizarrely tie itself to the most unreliable and hostile nation on earth.

Energy also plays a pivotal role in Europe’s waning competitiveness. The United States has transformed itself into an energy superpower by dramatically expanding oil and natural gas production, not only for domestic consumption but also for export purposes. This determination to develop its resources is a major factor in keeping its industrial base not only growing but massive and competitive.

Meanwhile, much of Europe inexplicably chose to pursue so-called “green energy,” abandoning coal and shuttering nuclear power plants while constraining oil and gas exploration with so many regulations that the EU’s nations are wholly dependent on others for their energy. They are, thus, buffeted by the vagaries of the global oil and gas markets as renewable energy sources have proven themselves to  be grossly unreliable and prohibitively expensive.

Virtually all European countries are experiencing the highest electricity costsamong developed nations worldwide. Together with excessive regulations, this hampers Europe’s remaining manufacturing base and further suppresses the development of new industries and start-up companies, as well as undermining Europe’s ability to produce weapons for its defense.

Lastly, European society is undergoing an irreversible transformation due to apathy, clueless leadership, secularization, and the importation of millions of migrants hostile to Western culture. Except for Poland and other Eastern European nations, there does not seem to be any willingness to act aggressively stop this transformation.

Without a seismic reversal of this societal apathy and a massive change in its approach to economic growth, Europe will continue to fade and could eventually experience civil strife and violent upheaval. Thus, it cannot currently or in the future be competitive with the United States.

As for NATO, the question is not whether Europe can assume America’s role, but whether the U.S. should remain in NATO, particularly given Europe’s overtures to China and the potential cultural upheaval in many NATO countries.

The only way Europe can hope to be competitive with the United States would be if America descends into the same cesspool. That could well happen if the Marxist-controlled Democrat party were allowed to assume power for an extended period. The party’s policies would destroy America’s competitiveness, standard of living, and culture. This highlights, of course, how important the 2026 and 2028 elections will be.