The EU incorporated a lot of countries in the last 30 years, some of them in a pretty bad shape after their transictions from socialism into a market economy.
Of course it would decrease GDP per capita.
But GDP per capita, and Nominal GDP per capita non adjusted by purchase power parity only tells half the history.
Free healthcare, good quality public education, cheaper and or subsidized housing, better worker protections and other good wellfare policies largely make for the nominal GDP difference betweeen the US and most EU countries.
Not to mention that a lot of economic activity not directly related to goods in the US like the sue-happy judicial economy, speculative financial services and insurance, and the cartelized highly inneficient healthcare industry are a big portion of the GDP.
> ncorporated a lot of countries in the last 30 years, some of them
Every of those countries was in a better shape than China, when it started the transition to a market economy.
> Free healthcare, good quality public education, cheaper and or subsidized housing
You do understand that those (highly desirable) goods need to be paid for, and in the past have been paid for by the economic success of the successful EU countries like the Netherlands, etc. But even those have been loosing their competitive edge more and more vis-a-vis China and the US. Loss of access to cheap Russian energy will make this worse. With economic decline those niceties will wither, too ...
But GDP per capita, and Nominal GDP per capita non adjusted by purchase power parity only tells half the history.
Free healthcare, good quality public education, cheaper and or subsidized housing, better worker protections and other good wellfare policies largely make for the nominal GDP difference betweeen the US and most EU countries.
Not to mention that a lot of economic activity not directly related to goods in the US like the sue-happy judicial economy, speculative financial services and insurance, and the cartelized highly inneficient healthcare industry are a big portion of the GDP.