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Britain is one of the richest countries on Earth (21st in terms of GDP/capita, and many countries ranked above it are tiny ones). This compares favourably to it

Britain is one of the richest countries on Earth (21st in terms of GDP/capita, and many countries ranked above it are tiny ones). This compares favourably to its most similar neighbour, France (23rd), which also suffered the same economic shocks of WW2 and decolonisation. A more accurate title might be "Why is the US so rich?". The answer to this is simply that the US has profound natural resources, and the US did not have to engage in defensive total war during WW2 so all of those resources could be put to an economic purpose for the entire 20th century. The US never had to go through decolonisation because it long ago decided to exterminate the native people instead. Britain's wealth was tied up in far away colonial dominions that understandably wanted to take that wealth with them. Anyone who has seen more of the world than the US and Europe can appreciate that Britain is not poor under any meaningful definition of the word. It's an economically average medium-sized Western European country.

BeetleB 2y ago
> A more accurate title might be "Why is the US so rich?" The article has nothing to do with the US. > Britain is one of the richest countries on Earth (21st in terms of GDP/capita, and many countries ranked above it are tiny ones). This compares favourably to its most similar neighbour, France (23rd), which also suffered the same economic shocks of WW2 and decolonisation. And yet, as the article points out, the French populace and infrastructure is doing far better than the UK's. Everything you point out (decolonization, etc) is as true of the French as it is of the British. Yet, one of the major themes of the article is comparing the UK with France.
ivell 2y ago
>>Britain's wealth was tied up in far away colonial dominions that understandably wanted to take that wealth with them. Any citations on Britain's wealth being tied up? At least in case of India, it was reverse with Britain extracting wealth out of India for most of its stay. It is like saying a thief's money is tied up in the house they wanted to robe.

BeetleB 2y ago

> A more accurate title might be "Why is the US so rich?" The article has nothing to do with the US. > Britain is one of the richest countries on Earth (21st in terms of GDP/capita, and many countries ranked above it are tiny ones). This compares favourably to its most similar neighbour, France (23rd), which also suffered the same economic shocks of WW2 and decolonisation. And yet, as the article points out, the French populace and infrastructure is doing far better than the UK's. Everything you point out (decolonization, etc) is as true of the French as it is of the British. Yet, one of the major themes of the article is comparing the UK with France.

ivell 2y ago

>>Britain's wealth was tied up in far away colonial dominions that understandably wanted to take that wealth with them. Any citations on Britain's wealth being tied up? At least in case of India, it was reverse with Britain extracting wealth out of India for most of its stay. It is like saying a thief's money is tied up in the house they wanted to robe.