Comment by LunaSea
I can agree in some ways but the issue remains (as an European) that our collective economies don't really grow anymore.
So there might be more competition, but it's either marginal, or it's to weak to compete with other international companies (like the once in China for example).
Europe has been "stagnating" at about ~80% of American productivity levels for decades now. However, if your reference is growing and your ratio is roughly constant, that means you are growing too.