Indian kid describes America

[Imran Siddiqui]

Saying 150 years is pretty silly... let's remember that John D. Rockefeller was the richest person in the world in the 1910s and 1920s (and responsible for 1.5% of US GDP by himself) through oil extraction.

[MRT144]

Saying 150 years is pretty silly... let's remember that John D. Rockefeller was the richest person in the world in the 1910s and 1920s (and responsible for 1.5% of US GDP by himself) through oil extraction.

I suppose one could argue that US Steel wasn't in the resource extraction business or that Leland Stanford's railroading adventures were only tangentially related to resource extraction. JP Morgan is really the first mega financier but almost everything his business underwrote was based in no small part on infrastructure and resource extraction.

[DaShi]

That's exactly what the OP was about. Americans have pretty much everything they need, and the difference between rich and poor is more a matter of relative luxury than having food and shelter. Here's an old Economist piece about a poor American redneck and a Congolese doctor. They have similar income, but the redneck benefits from living stupidly in a rich country, while the doctor is owed months of back pay, and has to help support an extended family.



I just thought that bit was ****ing hilarious.

It's doubly amusing because in China patients frequently do attack their doctors.

[DaShi]

I think his point was that the resources & land allowed for a substantial base for the US economy to become rapidly industrialized.

And rapidly militarize.

[MRT144]

And rapidly militarize.

Balderdash Dashi, we simply outsmarted and outexceptionalized every other nation.

[Krill]

Oh honey.

Come work with me for a day if you think we have an almost-classless society.

Is it better than India? Sure, no denying that.

I'd like it if HC and BEn came to work with me for a day...walk onto a locked ward, show him around...then go on vacation for a few weeks.

[Aeson]

Norway's GDP is entirely because of oil revenue.

Yah, US wealth has nothing to do with the fact that we took over the largest and most productive agricultural region on earth, with most of the resources on the continent unexploited, rather recently.

[KrazyHorse]

HC is the only one being reasonable here. Norway exports 20% of its GDP in the form of petroleum products. Any comparison which equates this with the US economy of the 20th century is idiotic.

[Aeson]

The number of raw materials which the US isn't one of the leading producers of is a rather short list. But damn Norway and their frozen wasteland with oil under it ... they're cheating!

[Aeson]

HC is the only one being reasonable here. Norway exports 20% of its GDP in the form of petroleum products. Any comparison which equates this with the US economy of the 20th century is idiotic.

Are you denying that we've extracted from the land more value in resources than any other nation on earth the last century?

[KrazyHorse]

In a percentage of GDP terms? Absolutely.

[Aeson]

If the EU was in NA with the unexploited resources we conquered, we'd likely see a much different wealth distribution. And likely they would have developed more like we did, and we more like they did. Incentive is higher when the tide is higher and has raised more boats. So yah, it makes sense that those who are on the biggest pile of natural resources in the world would work a bit harder at extracting it and making it into things to sell than those who have to work harder to get less.

[Aeson]

In a percentage of GDP terms? Absolutely.

So your idea is that Europeans are just naturally more inclined to be lazy. Perhaps genetically? That environmental and economic pressures haven't affected Europeans or Americans at all?

[KrazyHorse]

Watching you twist to try to make this reasonable is entertaining.

[Lorizael]

HC is the only one being reasonable here. Norway exports 20% of its GDP in the form of petroleum products. Any comparison which equates this with the US economy of the 20th century is idiotic.

If you're asking why a particular country is rich, then looking at its history of natural resource usage is not idiotic. Is America today driven by resource extraction? No. Was America driven by resource extraction in the past? Yes. Did that past lead to this present? Hmm...