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> What America got, by being the heavyweight in NATO, was the greatest economy the world has ever seen. America got rich by selling Europe a nuclear umbrella B
by rayiner 10mo ago
> What America got, by being the heavyweight in NATO, was the greatest economy the world has ever seen. America got rich by selling Europe a nuclear umbrella
But this just isn’t true! The U.S. overtook the UK in per capita GDP in 1880, near the peak of the British Empire: https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/us-gdp-per-capita https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/us-gdp-per-cap.... At that point the UK was already significantly richer than the rest of europe.
If you look at GDP growth rate, the US has consistently averaged 1.7% GDP per capita growth over the past 200 years. The mass industrialization during the war itself spike growth and helped recovery from the Great Depression, but America didn’t grow dramatically faster during the NATO era than it did before that.
The U.S. is rich because its been one of the richest countries in the world since the 18th century and has been extraordinarily stable. It was considerably richer than western Europe even going into the 20th century: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Population-GDP-and-GDP-per-capita-1900-2030-selected-countries-and-the-world-GDP-per_tbl1_228999174 https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Population-GDP-and-GDP-p.... In 1900, U.S. gdp per capita was almost 50% higher than western europe. In 1990, it was also about 50%. There was a temporary period right after the war when the U.S. was much richer than western europe, but europe actually grew faster during this 1950-1990 period.
- fatbird 10mo agoOkay. What will the stability be like after NATO is shattered and the EU is no longer a market open to the US?
- rayiner 10mo agoStability will be fine. U.S. exports to the EU are only 1.1% of GDP.
- judahmeek 10mo agoPlease go read https://theauthoritarians.org/ https://theauthoritarians.org/
- rayiner 10mo agoPlease go read “The Culture Transplant.” https://www.rorotoko.com/11/20230913-jones-garett-on-book-culture-transplant-how-migrants-make-economies-they-move-to-a-lot-like-the-ones-they-left https://www.rorotoko.com/11/20230913-jones-garett-on-book-cu...
- CyberDildonics 10mo ago"culture" is meaningless and a non argument anywhere. It is only ever brought up as an emotional argument against something someone is uncomfortable with. It has nothing to do with systems that involve people.
- snark_attack 10mo ago[dead]
- mindslight 10mo agoI don't understand how you can continue referencing narratives like this one, wear your minority identity on your sleeve like you're still competing in the DEI Olympics, but yet keep failing to see that you're personally responsible for doing exactly as this book bemoans. If you're really concerned about preserving American culture against dilution by immigrants bringing other cultures, have you ever thought that maybe it's time for you personally to hold back with the developing-country-style populist strongman boosting? Not some vague "other" that might come here and do even more of the same, but you personally, right here, right now. If this lauded western European culture is based around consensus, process, and compromise (rough points you've made elsewhere about the importance of culture), surely you can recognize that this culture has something to say about the wisdom of attacking longstanding allies (regardless of any perceived immediate benefit). Essentially, if you see value in the incumbent culture then maybe you should be content deferring to it a bit more while you're still assimilating. I'm sure you're going to have rationalizations aplenty in response to this comment, so all I can really say is perhaps try some self-reflection.
- rayiner 9mo ago
- fatbird 10mo agoAnd how much does the U.S. import from the EU?
- _DeadFred_ 10mo agoWTF kind of useless measurement is this? Is the impact going to be spread evenly across the entire US GDP sources? No, it's going to have large impacts on specific industries/services and not much on others. How the f are you arguing these numbers won't have an impact on us? Total US goods exports in 2024 were $2,083.8 billion Total US goods exports to the European Union were $369.8 billion, to the UK $79.5 billion Total US services exports in 2024 was $1,107 billion Total U.S. services exports to European Union in 2024 were $294.7 billion, to the UK another$99.4 billion The EU is 26% of our services exports The UK is 9% Canada another 8% Sure, our economy, industry, and service sector can totally just eat losing this trade, it's not significant at all. /s https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe/european-union https://ustr.gov/countries-regions/europe-middle-east/europe... https://www.bea.gov/news/2025/us-international-trade-goods-and-services-december-and-annual-2024 https://www.bea.gov/news/2025/us-international-trade-goods-a... https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c4120.html https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c4120.html https://www.usitc.gov/publications/industry_econ_analysis_332/2024/recent_trends_us_services_trade_2024_annual_report https://www.usitc.gov/publications/industry_econ_analysis_33...