Mississippi, the poorest state in the United States, is close to surpassing Europe’s largest economy Germany’s GDP per capita. Euronews Business compares US states with European countries.
The poorest US state’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita is higher than that of Europe’s top five economies, except for Germany. However, Mississippi competes closely with Germany, with a difference of just €1,500.
The extent of wealth inequality in the United States versus Europe makes GDP per capita a useless figure, given that most of the wealth only benefits the 0.01%. After taking it out of the equation and accounting for ridiculous health care costs (the lowering of which via universal healthcare would free up substantial financial resources to fuel the growth of other sectors of the economy), even Eastern Europe could be considered prosperous in comparison to Mississippi.