Proof the US Economy is the Strongest(Welcome Conservative Grapevine Readers)
Here are the
top ten countries in the world as ranked by the CIA for Gross Domestic Product Per Capita:
1 Luxembourg $ 58,900 2004 est.
2 United States $ 40,100 2004 est.
3 Guernsey $ 40,000 2003 est.
4 Norway $ 40,000 2004 est.
5 Jersey $ 40,000 2003 est.
6 British Virgin Islands $ 38,500 2004 est.
7 Bermuda $ 36,000 2003 est.
8 San Marino $ 34,600 2001 est.
9 Hong Kong $ 34,200 2004 est.
10 Switzerland $ 33,800 2004 est.
Now you'll note that most of the countries on this list are teeny-tiny little dots in an ocean somewhere. Luxembourg, which is a teeny-tiny dot in the middle of Europe, has an economy that looks quite nice until you realize that the US GDP per capita is multiplied by 691 times as many people as Luxembourg's. Switzerland is the "big" country in population among the other nine, and even its 7.5 million population is dwarfed by the USA's 295 million. Add up all the other nine and we still outweigh them by a factor of 15 times and have a much higher GDP per capita.
We start to see some bigger countries near the middle of the next ten:
11 Cayman Islands $ 32,300 2004 est.
12 Denmark $ 32,200 2004 est.
13 Ireland $ 31,900 2004 est.
14 Iceland $ 31,900 2004 est.
15 Canada $ 31,500 2004 est.
16 Austria $ 31,300 2004 est.
17 Australia $ 30,700 2004 est.
18 Belgium $ 30,600 2004 est.
19 United Kingdom $ 29,600 2004 est.
20 Netherlands $ 29,500 2004 est.
But even so, the combined total of population of all those ten countries and the earlier nine is still only about half that of the US, and the big countries come at the bottom of this list, a full 20% or more below the US GDP per capita. And where are the worker's havens of France and Germany?
21 Japan $ 29,400 2004 est.
22 Finland $ 29,000 2004 est.
23 France $ 28,700 2004 est.
24 Germany $ 28,700 2004 est.
25 Man, Isle of $ 28,500 2003 est.
26 Sweden $ 28,400 2004 est.
27 Aruba $ 28,000 2002 est.
28 Gibraltar $ 27,900 2000 est.
29 Singapore $ 27,800 2004 est.
30 Italy $ 27,700 2004 est.
Ah, there they are, over 27% (and $11,000) below the US. And the bad news is that while there is apparently a smoothing factor to prevent wild swings in GDP per capita from exchange rate variations, the fact is that overall the
dollar's been strong compared to the currencies shown here in 2005. The dollar is up over 10% against the Euro, 6% against the pound, 4% against the yen. Odds are good that even before considering economic fundamentals (which favor the United States) the US will surge forward once again compared to the rest of the world.
