3 ms·

Why the U.S. Is Still Richer Than Every Other Large Country

5 points by KoftaBob 6y ago

chmod775 6y ago
Data from the article: Country, real GDP per cap, hours worked, GDP / hour USA , $56,000 , 1800 , $31.11 Germany, $47,000 , 1400 , $33.57 Huh. I wonder if this makes their other points kind of moot, since it would appear you don't need to do anything besides having a workforce that doesn't get on average 5 weeks of paid vacation a year.
tonyedgecombe 6y ago
An entrepreneurial culture. Yet there are statistics showing the US is becoming more centralised, business is becoming concentrated in fewer and larger companies. World-class research universities. Which the UK also has. Germany less so but it's richer than the UK. Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large trade unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor regulations. Again the UK is relatively free of trade union interference but still considerably less well off. A growing population, including from immigration. Again the UK has a growing population, even after Brexit. A culture (and a tax system) that encourages hard work and long hours. The country with the longest hours in Europe is Greece, one of the poorer regions. Germany and the Netherlands work fewer hours but are much better off than Greece. A smaller size of government than in other industrial countries. According to the article France has a much bigger state than Italy but France is also much better off. A decentralized political system in which states compete. The UK has a very centralised state, its probably one of the reasons we dealt with Covid so poorly. As someone running a business in the UK the one thing I would love to have is such a large homogeneous home market. Even within the EU selling into other European countries is much more work than into the UK.
mcv 6y ago
While some of these points are undoubtedly true, there are also a couple that sound questionable to me: > "Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large trade unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor regulations." As far as I'm aware the US is the only western country where trade unions impede linking workers and jobs. Netherland, for example, has pretty large and powerful trade unions, but membership is never compulsory. There's no such thing as a union shop. Unions merely represent their members in salary negotiations and assist them in labour disputes. > "there are virtually no state-owned enterprises" Many European countries have privatised a lot of industries during the 1990s. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the USPS is still state owned, while in other countries, postal services have been privatised (personally I think that was a mistake, although with phone companies, it seems it have worked out well). > "A culture (and a tax system) that encourages hard work and long hours." It certainly does but I'm not sure how much of a positive that is. In the EU, Greeks work the longest hours, Dutch work the least. Yet Netherland has a much higher GDP per capita. Long hours don't always mean high productivity, and it can also mean burned out workers. Besides, is it more important to have high GDP, or to have a happy population? My impression is that the US has a lot more poverty than many European countries.

5 points by KoftaBob 6y ago

Data from the article: Country, real GDP per cap, hours worked, GDP / hour USA , $56,000 , 1800 , $31.11 Germany, $47,000 , 1400 , $33.57 Huh. I wonder if this makes their other points kind of moot, since it would appear you don't need to do anything besides having a workforce that doesn't get on average 5 weeks of paid vacation a year.

tonyedgecombe 6y ago

An entrepreneurial culture. Yet there are statistics showing the US is becoming more centralised, business is becoming concentrated in fewer and larger companies. World-class research universities. Which the UK also has. Germany less so but it's richer than the UK. Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large trade unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor regulations. Again the UK is relatively free of trade union interference but still considerably less well off. A growing population, including from immigration. Again the UK has a growing population, even after Brexit. A culture (and a tax system) that encourages hard work and long hours. The country with the longest hours in Europe is Greece, one of the poorer regions. Germany and the Netherlands work fewer hours but are much better off than Greece. A smaller size of government than in other industrial countries. According to the article France has a much bigger state than Italy but France is also much better off. A decentralized political system in which states compete. The UK has a very centralised state, its probably one of the reasons we dealt with Covid so poorly. As someone running a business in the UK the one thing I would love to have is such a large homogeneous home market. Even within the EU selling into other European countries is much more work than into the UK.

mcv 6y ago

While some of these points are undoubtedly true, there are also a couple that sound questionable to me: > "Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large trade unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor regulations." As far as I'm aware the US is the only western country where trade unions impede linking workers and jobs. Netherland, for example, has pretty large and powerful trade unions, but membership is never compulsory. There's no such thing as a union shop. Unions merely represent their members in salary negotiations and assist them in labour disputes. > "there are virtually no state-owned enterprises" Many European countries have privatised a lot of industries during the 1990s. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the USPS is still state owned, while in other countries, postal services have been privatised (personally I think that was a mistake, although with phone companies, it seems it have worked out well). > "A culture (and a tax system) that encourages hard work and long hours." It certainly does but I'm not sure how much of a positive that is. In the EU, Greeks work the longest hours, Dutch work the least. Yet Netherland has a much higher GDP per capita. Long hours don't always mean high productivity, and it can also mean burned out workers. Besides, is it more important to have high GDP, or to have a happy population? My impression is that the US has a lot more poverty than many European countries.