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> In todays world, Holland is tiny Yes, but there is no correlation between the size of a country and the standard of living of its inhabitants. The people of

> In todays world, Holland is tiny Yes, but there is no correlation between the size of a country and the standard of living of its inhabitants. The people of India, Brazil or Nigeria is not better off than the people of Norway, Singapore or Switzerland.

rtkwe 10y ago
And standard of living doesn't correlate well to geopolitical/economic power which is what GP was talking about with being able to get good terms in trade negotiations.
NetStrikeForce 10y ago
Yeah, but India has more than a billion people and they have nukes. As the parent comment said, Holland is tiny and not only geographically or in population. - It's barely in the top 40 military world powers: http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=netherlands http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-det... - It's 17th on GDP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... (actually below India and Brazil and not so far from Nigeria) As part of the EU, Dutch people live in the (arguably) world's biggest economy. Outside the EU, they're just 17th and far from most of their neighbours. You punch above your weight in football though :) The EU is far from perfect, but we're the ones building it.
- rhizome31 10y ago
  Which is to compare with the listing on this page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... Edit: I'm not Dutch by the way
  - NetStrikeForce 10y ago
    That's the thing: Monaco, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein are not even local players. Others in the top of the list are not global players: Norway, Qatar, etc India and Brazil have very low GDP per capita, but they're absolute weight is so big that they're world players (more India than Brazil if you ask me), at least compared to rich countries like Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, etc

rtkwe 10y ago

And standard of living doesn't correlate well to geopolitical/economic power which is what GP was talking about with being able to get good terms in trade negotiations.

NetStrikeForce 10y ago

Yeah, but India has more than a billion people and they have nukes. As the parent comment said, Holland is tiny and not only geographically or in population. - It's barely in the top 40 military world powers: http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.asp?country_id=netherlands http://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-det... - It's 17th on GDP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... (actually below India and Brazil and not so far from Nigeria) As part of the EU, Dutch people live in the (arguably) world's biggest economy. Outside the EU, they're just 17th and far from most of their neighbours. You punch above your weight in football though :) The EU is far from perfect, but we're the ones building it.

rhizome31 10y ago
Which is to compare with the listing on this page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi... Edit: I'm not Dutch by the way
- NetStrikeForce 10y ago
  That's the thing: Monaco, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein are not even local players. Others in the top of the list are not global players: Norway, Qatar, etc India and Brazil have very low GDP per capita, but they're absolute weight is so big that they're world players (more India than Brazil if you ask me), at least compared to rich countries like Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, etc