8 YEARS OF DEMOCRATIC RULE COULD PROBABLY FIX THAT: Most of Europe Is a Lot Poorer than Most of the United States. “Most European countries (including Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium) if they joined the US, would rank among the poorest one-third of US states on a per-capita GDP basis, and the UK, France, Japan and New Zealand would all rank among America’s very poorest states, below No. 47 West Virginia, and not too far above No. 50 Mississippi. Countries like Italy, S. Korea, Spain, Portugal and Greece would each rank below Mississippi as the poorest states in the country.”

My own state of Tennessee is richer than Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Belgium, etc. Even richer than Japan. And it’s not an especially rich state.