[spideymans]

EU productivity is already lagging its peers. Being locked out of having the most cutting edge technologies will further plunge the block into a productivity decay. Less productivity means everyone in Europe will get poorer, with declining living standards. This is not an outcome Europe can afford, especially considering its aging workforce.

There is no silver lining to this. The EU has to stop strangling its most productive industries with onerous regulations, and allow markets the freedom to innovate and increase productivity.

[Arn_Thor]

Productivity is not a goal in itself. It is a means to a healthy and happy populace. Europe doesn’t have record breaking GDP but features many of the happiest people in the world. Different values result in different measures of success, I guess

[spideymans]

Productivity is ultimately the measure of the efficiency of human labor. The more productive workers are, the more free time they’ll have to do whatever it is they want to do to make themselves happy.

In the short term, lagging productivity can be masked by debt spending and other measures, but in the long run, the only thing that increases human wealth and material abundance is labor productivity. Everything else is illusionary.

All human societies have sought to increase labor productivity. The first stone tools, agriculture, and nuclear reactors are all productivity-enhancing inventions. Any society that opts out of seeking labor productivity will eventually see their wealth, living standards, and ultimately happiness decline. There is no way out of that trap.

And to be clear, there’s absolutely nothing good about low productivity for workers. All that means is that you’re spending more time working for lower wages, to produce things of lower value.

[Nasrudith]

I don't suppose you've heard of the Paul Krugman quote? "Productivity isn’t everything, but in the long run, it’s almost everything." Without productivity improvements you are in peril of replaying the ant and the grasshopper as the grasshopper.

[ghusto]

> EU productivity is already lagging its peers

Source!

> Less productivity means everyone in Europe will get poorer, with declining living standards

We have some of the highest living standards in the world. In caparison to the U.S.A. in particular, it's like a utopia.

> There is no silver lining to this. The EU has to stop strangling its most productive industries with onerous regulations, and allow markets the freedom to innovate and increase productivity.

The silver lining is American cultural imperialism is ended in Europe, and we live how we want to over here. There are different ways of living, with different values.

[spideymans]

> We have some of the highest living standards in the world. In caparison to the U.S.A. in particular, it's like a utopia.

Give it a few more decades of compounding lagging productivity, and that will no longer be true.

> The silver lining is American cultural imperialism is ended in Europe, and we live how we want to over here. There are different ways of living, with different values.

Productivity has nothing to do with cultural imperialism. China has dramatically increased their productivity, and that story has nothing to do with American imperialism

[alphabetting]

Good thing Apple Intelligence isn't the most cutting edge technology