The point about the lifestyle industries is a good one. Europeans feel they have the good life, so why would they want to be more like Americans (who work like crazy, have no safety net, and live with random gun violence) or like the Chinese (who slide into even greater autocracy)? Perhaps the drawbacks of American and Chinese society are the very factors contributing to their economic growth?
Having lived in both the US and a couple of countries in the EU, one thing that struck me about living in the EU is how inwards looking and past facing the society is. And the general sense of European exceptionalism meant there was much less interest in attracting talent from outside the EU. I personally believe the latter is one of the major reasons for their decline. In many industries and in academia, not only don't they attract outside talent, but also lose a lot of European talent to the US and UK.
America, has for a long time, not been a country to emulate in all spheres. Some, perhaps, but definitely not when it comes to post-1960's cannibalism of community and commonwealth, i.e., government institutions, social services, common infrastructure and services, and ambitious projects and goals, often under a deluded notion that profit motive and unfettered greed creates handwaving "good" without externalities. Additionally, most empires in N. America and Europe are in decline and will only skip and bounce with a cultural revolution with a core hopeful outlook that is concerned that their neighbors aren't going bankrupt with medical bills, their kids aren't shot at school, and festivals aren't mass shooting galleries. Healthy societies don't have excessive violence, extremely large prison populations per capita, absurd income disparities, media full of superheroes and apocalypse fictions, populist "strongmen", millions of unhoused people living worse than IDPs without UN assistance, and don't know their neighbors.
<a href="https://archive.is/vnFk8" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://archive.is/vnFk8</a><p>Is the artwork for this article AI generated?
Of course it has, and it will further. EU countries are busy dominating each other. The EU is not about unity but rather about modern day colonialism. I think storm clouds are brewing over europe and wont be too long until things will blow up again.