That’s a 35% difference! And again, of course the disposable income in Europe is more than adequate, but what about technology? Europe is lagging everywhere : computers, phones, space, IA, etc.
Space? Europe recently landed on a comet, something no one else has done, something even NASA has never achieved.
Rosetta was the first spacecraft to orbit a comet nucleus, and was the first spacecraft to fly alongside a comet as it headed towards the inner Solar System. It became the first spacecraft to examine at close proximity the activity of a frozen comet as it is warmed by the Sun. Shortly after its arrival at 67P, the Rosetta orbiter dispatched the Philae lander for the first controlled touchdown on a comet nucleus. The robotic lander’s instruments obtained the first images from a comet’s surface and made the first in situ analysis of its composition.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_(spacecraft)
Furthermore, do you know who makes the machines that TSMC uses to create the chips that power the worlds smartphones and countless other devices? A European company. Yes Taiwan makes the CPUs, but we make the CPU makers.
I am a proud European, but do not kid yourself. The United States are light years ahead in space technology. The Ariane program is a complete clusterfuck as of now.
Is US rocket supremacy why Союз rockets were bringing most of the US stuff into LEO the last 20 years or so?