If we compare the EU-15 (the membership before the enlargements of 2004 and 2007) with the US, the most obvious point is that GDP per capita in Europe is almost 25% lower, a difference of around $11,000 a year. Furthermore, per capita EU productivity, which had been converging on the US level for 20 years up to 1995, when Europe was only about 5% below the US, lost ten percentage points in relative terms in the decade preceding the eurozone crisis.
如果我们比较一下欧盟15国（EU-15，2004和2007年两次扩大之前的欧盟国家）美国，最显而易见的一点是欧洲人均GDP比美国要低近25%，即每年11 000美元。此外，人均欧盟生产率——在1995年之前的20年中，欧洲的这一指标一直在向美国靠拢，到1995年时只比美国低5%——在欧元区危机前的十年中相对美国下降了10个百分点。欧洲无法赶上美国从信息技术革命中获得的生产率大跃迁。