America's Remarkable GDP Per Capita and HDI Despite its Size (how much, unemployed)
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The top-1% is as good as anywhere in the world but the 2nd quintile simply doesn't have the education and skills to compete globally. The bottom half no longer have the education and skills to do much beyond minimum wage jobs.
The first quintile (top 20%) in the United States is where the majority of the wealth is. It is the college-educated class of people. Most of the world's top universities are in the United States.
So far, no other country (or very few other countries) seems to be able to compete with this.
My take is that most strong countries are or were empires. Strong countries such as Japan, China, the UK, France, the USA, Russia, Germany at one time or another dominated or wanted to dominate the world or at least their region. It takes a strong military to achieve domination. Building a strong military requires brain power. And military technologies often lead to innovations in civilian life as well. Even though Japan and Germany were defeated, the brain power that previously built their military were used to build their industries later.
My take is that most strong countries are or were empires. Strong countries such as Japan, China, the UK, France, the USA, Russia, Germany at one time or another dominated or wanted to dominate the world or at least their region. It takes a strong military to achieve domination. Building a strong military requires brain power. And military technologies often lead to innovations in civilian life as well. Even though, Japan and Germany were defeated, the brain power that previously built their military were used to build their industries later.
Basically, the whole world is in a never-ending rat race to see who can outdo everybody else and end up on top. And once they’ve reached the top, they have to figure out how to stay on top.
The first quintile (top 20%) in the United States is where the majority of the wealth is. It is the college-educated class of people. Most of the world's top universities are in the United States.
So far, no other country (or very few other countries) seems to be able to compete with this.
I've been working for Asian companies for the last decade. Don't delude yourself. It's not 1985 anymore. As a career Boston tech startup guy, the talent I see in Taiwan, South Korea, and China is at least at parity with any tech startup I ever did.
Walk around any of those elite universities. You won't see many US-born white people.
Walk around any of those elite universities. You won't see many US-born white people.
See, that's the thing. All of these foreign-born people come to the United States to get their degrees. Evidently, the universities in their home countries are not high-ranking enough or are not of the same quality as the top American universities.
And their home countries don't have the quantity of high-paying jobs that the United States has.
To be fair, India and China were 2 of the richest countries up to the 17th century.
Centuries of colonialism and the industrial revolution changed the power dynamics of the world.
Yes! That's why all this should be seen in the context of the industrial revolution, colonialsm, introduction of neoliberal policies, rather than the population size.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tall Traveler
Source?
Don't they teach you that at American schools? What do you do in geography? To praise the American Flag? What do you do in politics? To glorify America's superiority? And what do you learn in history classes? Oh, I forgot - history classes in the US only start chronologically with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and since then are constantly self-referential and America-centered ...., prior to that it seems that there's no history for Americans. And what do you do in other subjects? To learn that America is #1 everywhere?
I wonder... Do you even still have history classes in high school? I guess they are all replaced by Keynesian economics and other neoliberal approaches.
It should be well-known that China was the most advanced and highest developed part of the world for the majority of the last millenia. It was #1 from at least the 10th century until the 17th century, that is a longer time than there is the US, in the 18th century Western Europe reached a similar level and surpassed China.
"Chinarepresented 1.618% of the world's economy in 1987 (lowest point), rising to 11.47% in 2012 (highest point). It accounted for 32.9% of the world's economy in 1820, 17.2% in 1870, and 8.9% in 1913.[13]"
"The European Union represented 31.6% of the world's GDP at 1980 (highest point), and was at its lowest in 1985 at 25.01%."
"Russia accounted for 5.4% of the world's economy in 1820, 7.6% in 1870, and 8.6% in 1913.[13] The Soviet Union represented 20% of the world's economy in 1966[15] (highest point) and at the year of its dissolution (1991) only produced 7.58% of the world's economy (lowest point)."
"The United States represented 28.69% of the world's economy in 1960 (highest point), and was at its lowest point at 21.42% in 2011. It accounted for 1.8% of the world's economy in 1820, 8.9% in 1870, and 19.1% in 1913.[13]"
China accounted for more of the global GDP at its heyday peak time than other other country in the world, including the EU. Not even the US surpassed this mark.
As others have pointed out, the size of the US does absolutely not have a negative impact on its GDP, it has a positive impact instead - therefore the topic title is totally misleading and horrifyingly chosen. Too bad that many users (this topic has many views) will come to this topic, only read the first page and think "Yeah, the US has high GDP DESPITE it's size"---- despite that being not true.
As other have pointed out, the United States simply were the first country to invent the modern neoliberal system, which gives them a BIG time advantage, and by 1913 the US already had more inhabitants than other Western European nations. The super popolous nations of Asia switched to modern neoliberalism MUCH; MUCH later....
Also there have been two world wars in Europe and INTERESTINGLY (!!!) Switzerland wasn't involved into them - which gave Switzerland a HUGE CAPITALIST MONOPOLY TIME ADVANTAGE over the rest of Europe and nowadays Switzerland is EVEN RICHER than the United States!!! That is because the rest of Europe had totally different conditions.
At some point this topic has become absurd. QuebecOpec is now going to tell you a fairy tale fable and I'd like to remind you that each fable has a morally-philosphically meaning that can be transferred to reality:
Once, there has been a 22-years girl that was 1,88m tall who has been having ballet-dancing classes for about 16 years, and then there was a ballet-dancing competition with 20 participiants, all around the ages 18-24.
5 of these girls had ballet-dancing classes for about 8 years but none of them were taller than 1,8m, while the other 13 girls had ballet-dancing classes for less than 3 years and 9 of these 13 girls were taller than 1,8m. The other two girls were the above-mentioned 1,88m tall 22-years old girl and another girl - 1,6m tall - with 10 years of practice.
In the end, the 22-year old girl with 16 years of practice won the ballet-dancing competition, while the girl with 10 years of practice came second. The girls with less than 3 years experience of ballet scored badly.
Then the winning girl, who looked at at the losers, announced: "I HAVE WON DESPITE BEING TALL!" Totally ignoring the fact that she had the highest amount of years of experience...
The winning girl is the winner but one thing is for sure: she is not the brightest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer
India's and China's GDP were both higher than that of western Europe up to the 1700s:
Most history books recount how European explorers were astounded by the level of wealth in India and China when they arrived there. Portuguese explorers in the late 1400s called India the "Golden Country" and thought that Bengal was comparable in wealth to ancient Egypt. Hard to believe nowadays. Time changes everything.
Yes, exactly! China was the most advanced nation of the world (and I don't find it hard to believe at all)
Quote:
Originally Posted by NigerianNightmare
Most countries are small, and poorer countries have more children I think this is a correlation doesn’t equal causation issue. I actually think it is easier to be mega-rich in larger countries seeing as many businesses can really only dominate one country, if the business dominated a country that is of 300 million people it will be much bigger business than if it tries to do the same with a much smaller population base. This generates more money and I think you could say it compounds.
I hope this makes sense.
Yes, it does. Thank you for this brilliant explanation! This also mirrors what is written in the link the other person above me hast posted: "The biggest effect will be that China becomes the leading beneficiary of what economists call agglomeration effects. Agglomeration refers to the tendency of businesses to cluster together in the same region, because one company’s workers are another’s customers. As economists Paul Krugman, Masahisa Fujita and Anthony Venables showed two decades ago, agglomeration can bring big benefits to whatever region has the densest concentration of economic activity."
Last edited by QuebecOpec; 12-18-2018 at 06:29 PM..
See, that's the thing. All of these foreign-born people come to the United States to get their degrees. Evidently, the universities in their home countries are not high-ranking enough or are not of the same quality as the top American universities.
And their home countries don't have the quantity of high-paying jobs that the United States has.
Stick to your illusions. It doesn't align at all with the reality. MIT admits 1,100 freshmen. Cal Tech 231. 99.99% of the tech labor force doesn't go to that kind of school and that includes most of the A+ players who do the significant work. The 90th percentile engineer in China, Taiwan, or South Korea is stronger than the equivalent US-born engineer, works harder, and costs 40 or 50 cents on the dollar. In software and hardware engineering, whole industry sectors have moved from the US to Asia for that reason. They long ago hit critical mass for process and institutional knowledge. Their smart High School grads don't all want to be investment bankers or surgeons or corporate lawyers so the labor pool of smart engineers is enormous.
Stick to your illusions. It doesn't align at all with the reality. MIT admits 1,100 freshmen. Cal Tech 231. 99.99% of the tech labor force doesn't go to that kind of school and that includes most of the A+ players who do the significant work. The 90th percentile engineer in China, Taiwan, or South Korea is stronger than the equivalent US-born engineer, works harder, and costs 40 or 50 cents on the dollar. In software and hardware engineering, whole industry sectors have moved from the US to Asia for that reason. They long ago hit critical mass for process and institutional knowledge. Their smart High School grads don't all want to be investment bankers or surgeons or corporate lawyers so the labor pool of smart engineers is enormous.
So, why don't engineers in China, Taiwan or South Korea earn as much income as engineers in the U.S.?
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To praise the American Flag? What do you do in politics? To glorify America's superiority? And what do you learn in history classes? Oh, I forgot 
- history classes in the US only start chronologically with the arrival of Christopher Columbus and since then are constantly self-referential and America-centered ...., prior to that it seems that there's no history for Americans. And what do you do in other subjects? To learn that America is #1 everywhere? 
It was #1 from at least the 10th century until the 17th century, that is a longer time than there is the US, in the 18th century Western Europe reached a similar level and surpassed China. 
despite that being not true. 
and I'd like to remind you that each fable has a morally-philosphically meaning that can be transferred to reality: 
(and I don't find it hard to believe at all)
