In addtion, take Sweden, the country with the most immigration of the three…it’s unemployment rate is somewhere around 15%, see here.

The unemployment rate in the United States is somewhere around 4.5% and yet we take in vastly more immigrants. The differences couldn’t be more stark…

Those numbers don’t look low to me, especially considering the relatively small populations of the Scandinavian countries. And many of those immigrants are political refugees from places like Somolia, the Middle East, etc.

Just to give one example, it is a known fact that Scandanavian economies take in a very low amount of immigrants and even less low educated, high poverty immigrants, like the rest of Europe and certainly the United States does. Had they done so, their economic figures - things like income inequality, health care stats, economic mobility, unemployment rates and others - wouldn’t look nearly as good as they are. Sure, the USA could do the same if we banned more immigration, but one would argue that in doing so, we too are cheating and not really testing our economy to the fullest. As David Schmidtz said in this discussion, “Countries that don’t allow immigration aren’t constantly replenishing the population of people who are starting with nothing. People who come here with nothing are going to be increasingly far behind the rest of a population that has been building up wealth for generations. Countries that radically restrict immigration don’t have people that poor, but it doesn’t give them the moral high ground”. In other words, if you care about immigration and the poor, the Scandinavian economies are not ones to bring up as successful models. For more on Scandinavian economies, go here and here.

As far as coming from “massive wars, repressive dictatorships, and transitioning economies”, lets remember that Japan, a country that suffered just as much as any European country if not more because of war, is also miles ahead of most of Western Europe. The same can be said of very poor countries like Hong Kong and even Taiwan. Europe isn’t just behind the United States, Europe is also progressing far behind the United States.

I think this has more to do with France, Germany, Italy, and Spain recovering from massive wars, repressive dictatorships, and transitioning economies. My wife and I are always talking about the Spanish attitude towards life and success, and the rate at which things are changing economically. The younger generations come from poorer families with pale attitudes towards the prospect of success. Unemployment is extremely high in some parts of Europe and thus education and hard work is not just valued, it’s considered necessary for any chance at a decent life. These factors seem to be producing generations of driven, educated, and fervent people (relative to the people I see in the US) who wont surprise me if they surpass our own American generation of slackers and ingrates.

Think of the immigrants from Mexico who came recently and are still coming in droves to this country. They have come here, sometimes illegally, to succeed and give their families the things they never had. That momentum is similar to what the young Europeans seem to have… the only difference being access to higher education and a solid infrastructure to work from.