Indian kid describes America

[giblets]

Europe used to control Africa and most of Asia. And Europeans are complaining about not having enough land?

[Hauldren Collider]

The whole land thing stems from a model of economic growth that occurs on much longer time scales than actually happens in the real world.

[MRT144]

IS THIS WHY MOST OF JAPAN'S ECONOMIC GROWTH HAPPENED AFTER WWII??

Oh, you mean like most the world?

I'll give you an actual answer - do you think being industrialized pre WWII typically resulted in more robust economic growth post WWII?

[Hauldren Collider]

World trade was much freer post-world war II as Europe decolonized. In the postwar world, colonial adventures were not needed for industrialization except to some limited extent for the Communist bloc.

[giblets]

The whole land thing stems from a model of economic growth that occurs on much longer time scales than actually happens in the real world.

A model of economic growth where physical and human capital is permanent and doesn't depreciate, therefore that extra wealth the US had in 1900 is still hanging around and generating extra GDP

[Hauldren Collider]

A model of economic growth where physical and human capital is permanent and doesn't depreciate, therefore that extra wealth the US had in 1900 is still hanging around and generating extra GDP

That is an excellent summary of the argument Lori is putting forward.

[Hauldren Collider]

World trade was much freer post-world war II as Europe decolonized. In the postwar world, colonial adventures were not needed for industrialization except to some limited extent for the Communist bloc.

I want to clarify this for a minute, what I mean is that access to natural resources no longer has to do with what random rat holes you put your flag over. You can just buy them now.

[Lorizael]

Your argument is nonsense. There are lots of reasons the Europeans are wealthy, too. What we're interested in is the meaningful difference TODAY between the EU and the US. It isn't ****ing natural resources. Jesus H. Christ. You're trying to make some historical argument about something that is purely contemporary.
However, natural resources IS the meaningful difference between Norway and the US and the rest of the EU.

As for your quip about government and % of GDP, 1) Norway's government is a much bigger part of their GDP, 2) the government doesn't consist of free money buried right beneath the ground.

I think we're coming at this from different points of view, and neither of us is doing a particularly good job of bridging the gap. So I'm gonna bow out. If you like, you can tell people that Lori was pwned in the "Indian kid describes America" thread.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The interesting thing about Japan and South Korea is that their GDP per capita, PPP, hovers right around the EU average.

Also, as stated, Norway and Luxembourg were just examples to point out that HC was referring to the EU as a whole. Because there are more than a few European countries that are above 40k GDP per capita, PPP, in the World Bank rankings (US is at 49k): Austria (44k) Ireland (43k), Netherlands (43k), Sweden (43k), Denmark (42k), Germany (41k). And there are more than a few EU countries which are much lower (mostly former USSR dominated countries - Estonia and Latvia are at 23k).

One of the issues is that fiscal policies in all these countries is fairly different (while monetary is the same). Obviously Norway is higher currently than Sweden due to oil resources, but it isn't like Norway would be at the EU average (33k) without it - after all, Saudi Arabia's GDP per capita, PPP, is only 31k and Iran's is 11k (yes, THAT low).

[kentonio]

"The top 10 percent of the US population has an aggregate income equal to income of the poorest 43 percent of people in the world, or differently put, total income of the richest 25 million Americans is equal to total income of almost 2 billion people."

Hmm, I wonder what the per capita GDP of the US is if you remove say the top 1%.

[giblets]

"The top 10 percent of the US population has an aggregate income equal to income of the poorest 43 percent of people in the world, or differently put, total income of the richest 25 million Americans is equal to total income of almost 2 billion people."

Hmm, I wonder what the per capita GDP of the US is if you remove say the top 1%.

The top 1% of households receive ~19%. 81% of the USA's GDP is ~$40,500. The European Union has ~$32,500 per capita. The top 1% in Europe gets somewhere in the range of 5-10% (look up the numbers if you really care) so factoring them out gets something in the $29-31,000 range.

[Ben Kenobi]

Would the US be what it is today if it had been subjected to a trade embargo by the virtually all of the world's trading nations for virtually its entire existence?

Canada was trade embargoed?

[Ben Kenobi]

Both are largely frozen wastelands

This is untrue for either Canada or the Soviet Union.

(If you look at development in Alaska, it isn't so great either. Clearly climate plays a role in how available resources are.)

Alaska also has a not inconsiderable proportion of the US's natural resources.

And the US has more arable land than either of them.

The Soviet Union had 10 percent of their landmass as arable. The US has about 17.

The Soviet Union encompassed 8.65 million square miles. The US has 3.8 million square miles.

This works out to .865 million square miles of arable land for the Soviet Union and .65 million square miles for the US.

[dannubis]

A model of economic growth where physical and human capital is permanent and doesn't depreciate, therefore that extra wealth the US had in 1900 is still hanging around and generating extra GDP

Usually you are not this obtuse. Feeling extra contrarian today ?

[giblets]

Usually you are not this obtuse. Feeling extra contrarian today ?

I am not contrarian.