Much of this thread has been a discussion of the failure of socialism and the success of the free market. The United States probably does epitomize the free market economy.
My question is how well is it doing, especially relative to other countries further along the scale to socialism.
So I decided to look at the stats.
And I do know:
"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is part of a phrase attributed to Benjamin Disraeli and popularised in the United States by Mark Twain: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."
The success of an economy is often measured by the
Gross Domestic Product. The EU (US$18,850,000,000,000)is more productive than the US (US$14,330,000,000,000). But the EU is not a country, the US ranks #1 in GDP. (CIA statistics)
However, the GDP does not take into account population size or purchasing power, so we need to consider the gross domestic product (GDP) at purchasing power parity (PPP) per capita.
10. United States 47,000 2008 est.
9. Singapore 52,000 2008 est.
8. Brunei 53,100 2008 est.
7. Norway 55,200 2008 est.
6. Jersey 57,000 2005 est.
5. Kuwait 57,400 2008 est.
4. Bermuda 69,900 2004 est.
3. Luxembourg 81,100 2008 est.
2. Qatar 103,500 2008 est.
1. Liechtenstein 118,000 2007 est.
(CIA stats, again) Jersey and Bermuda are not independent nations.
But the GDP capita measures standard of living, not quality of life. The Human Development Index adds two other factors, health and education to the mix. That ranking is as follows:
Rank Country HDI Change from 2005
1 Iceland 0.968 ▲ +0.001
2 Norway 0.968 ▲ +0.001
3 Canada 0.967 ▲ +0.002
4 Australia 0.965 ▲ +0.002
5 Ireland 0.960 ▲ +0.002
6 Netherlands 0.958 ▲ +0.002
7 Sweden 0.958 ▲ +0.001
8 Japan 0.956 ▲ +0.003
9 Luxembourg 0.956 ▲ +0.002
10 Switzerland 0.955 ▲ +0.002
11 France 0.955 ▲ +0.002
12 Finland 0.954 ▲ +0.004
13 Denmark 0.952 ▲ +0.003
14 Austria 0.951 ▲ +0.003
15 United States 0.950 ▬
(United Nations stats)
For some other refinements of the HDI and the place of the US on Gender Equality, check out this
United Nations web site.
OsmundL will be pleased to note that Norway, that wicked socialist country
, ranks rather high.
I will admit that these are the indices that I know and it may possible to found scales on which the US ranks at the top.
You invited to post them. I am open to looking at them.
Jack