Which Is The Best Explanation For Why European Productivity Is Close To That Of The U.S. While GDP Per Person Is Still Much Less?

Two things: Population; shorter work hours (with correlative higher paid leave). Because of its population Eu's total productivity can approach US's. Because work output is distributed over greater numbers of workers each working less, per-capita output, hence productivity, is less than U.S.

The socialist govts of Europe siphon off most of the wealth. Everything there is mind-bogglingly inefficient, overly regulated, heavily taxed, and needlessly expensive. I lived in England for 2 years. Beautiful, cultural, exciting and - doomed.