Historically speaking, the
E.U. and U.S. are relatively large in territorial expanse and population, so it
is only to be expected that significant economic (and cultural) differences
exist from state to state in the respective unions of states. In Europe, some
medieval kingdoms have relegated to being but regions in E.U. states. Holland,
for instance, is a region in The Netherlands, which in turn is a E.U. state. The
same can be said of Bavaria (and England, were the United Kingdom still a E.U.
state). To compare the economic inequality in such a region with the inequality
in the E.U. (or U.S.) over all would be deeply misleading. For example, rural/urban
economic patterns that pertain to an economy containing one major city do not
translate into the multiple rural/urban patterns that exist in a modern
(empire-scale) union of states. In short, scale matters, especially in how we make
use of mathematical averages. Comparing
GDP per capita is a case in point; states should be compared with states.
The full essay is at "GDP Per Capita in the E.U. and U.S."
