It's about China... Everyone that can (US, China, etc.) tries to guzzle as much data from online users as possible. That said, there are checks and balances in the US, there is a certain level of accountability. China is an absolute black box setting up an Orwellian social credit system for its own citizens, and with no accountability whatsoever about the data they might collect from foreign citizens. So, even if everyone is playing a similar game, ultimately there are differences.
France hasn't really benefited much. Italy has been the talking point for a long time and rightly so for the amount of debt plus the chronic political instability, but France is very much on a similar decline path.
Edit: cheap Russian gas + high productivity + political stability + undervalued currency (the Deutsche mark would have been way stronger than the euro) is what fueled German dominance in Europe. Italy/France/Spain/Greece/Portugal all struggled with varying degrees with low productivity, political instability (apart from France) and a currency that was too strong for their macro-economic fundamentals.
>President François Mitterrand argued for the single currency because he hoped to bolster French influence in an EU that would otherwise fall under the sway of a unified Germany
