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Canada's likely a pretty good model of what would have happened if we had not left England, and their GDP per capital is within spitting distance of the USA des
by CobrastanJorji 3y ago
Canada's likely a pretty good model of what would have happened if we had not left England, and their GDP per capital is within spitting distance of the USA despite having a less favorable geography.
- starkparker 3y agoA pretty good 1:10 scale model in population, maybe. If the US were still in the Commonwealth, it'd be the second-largest nation in population by 110 million and the largest in GDP by about $20 trillion. Parent comment's GDP rounding error for the US is the entirety of the UK's 2019 GDP ($3.1T).
- cafard 3y agoThe British administration of Canada was surely informed by the experiences of the 1770s. And Canada had its own rebellions, just not successful ones.
- throw0101b 3y ago> The British administration of Canada was surely informed by the experiences of the 1770s. The British administration of Canada was different to begin with because Britain acquired Canada from conquering New France and so had a completely separate culture. And the way France ran then-New France / now-Canada was completely different to how the British 'ran' the colonies ('ran' is used loosely, as there was minimal oversight since they were each basically commercial ventures). For some interesting research on how the administration differences resulted in the cultural differences (even though the countries are right next to each other), see the book The origins of Canadian and American political differences: * https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674031364 https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674031364 * https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3286270-the-origins-of-canadian-and-american-political-differences https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3286270-the-origins-of-c...
- futureshock 3y agoDoubtful. The US was the first government of its kind and it triggered the French Revolution and every anti-monarchist revolution since then. Canada and every other commonwealth state was influenced by that. The snowballing GDP under republics begin to have its own gravity until a huge portion of the world got pulled into our orbit. History is not a linear journey from point a to point b. Capitalist republics are not inevitable and liberalism is not assured. We could indeed all be bowing to Charles right now.
- CobrastanJorji 3y agoWell not Charles. If America didn't become a model Republic, Edward VIII quite likely would not have abdicated to marry American Wallis Simpson, and so George VI would likely have never taken the throne.
- FredPret 3y agoI think the abdication was more about her having been married before
- jtwaleson 3y agoWhile I agree on the first part I think it’s hard to separate the economies of USA and Canada due to their proximity and collaboration. I think a fairer comparison would be with Australia or New Zealand. Not sure how close they are in GDP per capita but they are also definitely up there.
- renegade-otter 3y agoThat's all in retrospect. History could have taken many other branches by now.
- tonmoy 3y agoI don’t think global democracy (nor the current democracy of Canada) would have been the same without the American Revolution
- FredPret 3y agoCanada's GDP is pulled up by the USA being right over the border but is still quite a lot lower per capita than that of the US. We lag far behind the US in wealth per capita - our economic performance is more on par with the nicer EU countries than with the US.
- lolinder 3y agoThe 2021 numbers, if anyone is interested like I was in what "spitting distance" means here: Canada: 51,987.94 USD USA: 70,248.63 USD That places Canada's GDP per capita at about 74% of the US's.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]