I like the balloon in the picture.

this was first time i've gotten out early on the bike for a while ... great to be rewarded with some eye-candy

You're thinking wrong. Europe is just on the verge to becoming the 51st state. Watch it happen...

UK is becoming communist China according to Farage. His mission is almost complete

I still prefer our decadent Europe than US' supposed American dream. :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:

That chart overestimates the divergence drastically. To make any comparison of welfare across countries, it should be 1) gdp per capita, to account for population growth, and 2) adjusted for purchasing power.

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?end=2022&locations=XC-US&start=2008&view=chart

Still faster growth in the US, but less pronounced

The nice thing is that you can probably fix that by reading other things

Read an old book