3 ms·

> the only country in the world that is close to the US in wealth is Switzerland and Australia What?! I have no idea where you got that idea from, but looking

by brabel 4y ago

> the only country in the world that is close to the US in wealth is Switzerland and Australia What?! I have no idea where you got that idea from, but looking at https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/ https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-per-capita/ you can see the USA is 13th in the world when its wealth is divided by its population. If you were trying to say that the USA is the wealthiest nation in absolute terms, I would understand, but when you place Australia and Switzerland as the only nations that "come close" you're clearly implying per capita wealth, meaning that's nonsense.

deepnotderp 4y ago
1-12 are either petro states or distorted due to being tax havens.
skippyboxedhero 4y ago
GDP isn't wealth, it is a measure of output over a period of time (and wealth is an amount at a point in time). It is also, generally, quite misleading because a nation can produce a tremendous amount of output, and all of that can be siphoned into an offshore account in Switzerland (KSA is an example, but there are also more subtle examples like Germany). And measuring wealth is very, very complex. Do you include pensions? How do you value a state pension? Do you include housing? How do you value housing? But if you look at relative net financial wealth (inc. pensions, you are likely going to Google and find something that doesn't include pensions) then the statement is true...the US and Switzerland are way out ahead on net financial assets, and in datasets that include pension wealth then you have Australia up there too (which has one of the most successful pension systems in the world, very strong economy too but they punch above that weight when looking at wealth). Again though, measuring these kind of things is complex so you have to not only be able to Google a ranking system but understand exactly how the pension system is structured in that country, how is the financial sector structured, how is the tax system structured, etc. The US is consistently at the top by any measure though.
- brabel 4y ago
  The problem is that you're saying it's very hard to measure wealth while at the same time confidently claiming the US is at the top. That just doesn't make sense. GDP may not be a perfect measure of wealth but it's the best we've got IMO. I've lived for a short while in Canada, for many years in Australia, and visited the USA many times... I really don't see much difference in wealth in general. I'm sure there's a lot more extremely rich people in the USA, but those are a small portion of the population so I wouldn't consider that an important indication of the wealth of a country, at least not as much as the wealth of the majority of its citizens (and the USA notoriously also has a lot more very poor people than either Australia or Canada). If you do that, perhaps the Arab Emirates would be wealthier? Or even China, home to more bilionaires than the USA IIRC?! Also, if you include healthcare access and pension as you seem to be doing, again, the USA is probably the worst as you're pretty much on your own with those things, while in nearly any other developed country, people get decent healthcare and pension even without having had high paying jobs their whole life.
jhj 4y ago
GDP does not represent wealth, it's a measure of current economic production. Furthermore, GDP is skewed for some countries where GNP might be a better figure (e.g., Ireland, where a fair chunk of the domestic production accrues to foreigners operating in the country). Table 2-1 in [1] lists mean wealth per adult per country, with Monaco first ($324,721), Switzerland second ($231,354) and the US third ($215,146) as far as I can tell. Median wealth figures are of course worse. [1] https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/research/publications/global-wealth-databook-2021.pdf https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/ab...
- skippyboxedhero 4y ago
  You have referenced the number for 2000. You can also see Australia punches well above it's weight in that survey. The stuff CS produces on UHNWIs is also very interesting.

by brabel 4y ago

deepnotderp 4y ago

1-12 are either petro states or distorted due to being tax havens.

skippyboxedhero 4y ago

GDP isn't wealth, it is a measure of output over a period of time (and wealth is an amount at a point in time). It is also, generally, quite misleading because a nation can produce a tremendous amount of output, and all of that can be siphoned into an offshore account in Switzerland (KSA is an example, but there are also more subtle examples like Germany). And measuring wealth is very, very complex. Do you include pensions? How do you value a state pension? Do you include housing? How do you value housing? But if you look at relative net financial wealth (inc. pensions, you are likely going to Google and find something that doesn't include pensions) then the statement is true...the US and Switzerland are way out ahead on net financial assets, and in datasets that include pension wealth then you have Australia up there too (which has one of the most successful pension systems in the world, very strong economy too but they punch above that weight when looking at wealth). Again though, measuring these kind of things is complex so you have to not only be able to Google a ranking system but understand exactly how the pension system is structured in that country, how is the financial sector structured, how is the tax system structured, etc. The US is consistently at the top by any measure though.

brabel 4y ago
The problem is that you're saying it's very hard to measure wealth while at the same time confidently claiming the US is at the top. That just doesn't make sense. GDP may not be a perfect measure of wealth but it's the best we've got IMO. I've lived for a short while in Canada, for many years in Australia, and visited the USA many times... I really don't see much difference in wealth in general. I'm sure there's a lot more extremely rich people in the USA, but those are a small portion of the population so I wouldn't consider that an important indication of the wealth of a country, at least not as much as the wealth of the majority of its citizens (and the USA notoriously also has a lot more very poor people than either Australia or Canada). If you do that, perhaps the Arab Emirates would be wealthier? Or even China, home to more bilionaires than the USA IIRC?! Also, if you include healthcare access and pension as you seem to be doing, again, the USA is probably the worst as you're pretty much on your own with those things, while in nearly any other developed country, people get decent healthcare and pension even without having had high paying jobs their whole life.

jhj 4y ago

GDP does not represent wealth, it's a measure of current economic production. Furthermore, GDP is skewed for some countries where GNP might be a better figure (e.g., Ireland, where a fair chunk of the domestic production accrues to foreigners operating in the country). Table 2-1 in [1] lists mean wealth per adult per country, with Monaco first ($324,721), Switzerland second ($231,354) and the US third ($215,146) as far as I can tell. Median wealth figures are of course worse. [1] https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/about-us/research/publications/global-wealth-databook-2021.pdf https://www.credit-suisse.com/media/assets/corporate/docs/ab...

skippyboxedhero 4y ago
You have referenced the number for 2000. You can also see Australia punches well above it's weight in that survey. The stuff CS produces on UHNWIs is also very interesting.