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The 25 richest countries in the world

"Taiwan, Province of China"

Some people are not going to like that.
 
Time for us (USA) to start stepping it up...

We need "no more Mr. nice guy" trade policies and to start charging for out protection like Trump talks about..
 
Time for us (USA) to start stepping it up...

We need "no more Mr. nice guy" trade policies and to start charging for out protection like Trump talks about..

You do know that all the countries above the United States are either petro-states or city-states right? The US is top of the pack in it's class.
 
You do know that all the countries above the United States are either petro-states or city-states right? The US is top of the pack in it's class.

Whatever...

Those middle eastern sunni countries Trump talks all the time about how we shouldn't be providing security forthem on our tax payers dime but rather should charge them for it..

Looks like they can afford it, he is right..
 
You do know that all the countries above the United States are either petro-states or city-states right? The US is top of the pack in it's class.

Norway is above the usa
 
Whatever...

Those middle eastern sunni countries Trump talks all the time about how we shouldn't be providing security forthem on our tax payers dime but rather should charge them for it..

Looks like they can afford it, he is right..

They are not doing economically better than the United States, actually right now all of the petro-states are hurting very badly form the low oil prices. I am going to give you and anyone else a quick lesson in economics.

GDP per capita is actually a really bad way to measure how wealthy a country truly is because all of the countries above the US on that list essentially cheat on either GDP or population or both.

All the petro-states are heavily reliant on oil and essentially have gone all in on it, they get a lot of money out of this, but it can also disappear in an instant like it did when the price of oil plummeted. The reason their GDP per capita is so big is because they cheat on their population because they have a lot of foreigners who contribute to the GDP yet do not count in the population causing a highly inflated GDP per capita for countries like Qatar where a majority of the population are foreigners. For the other countries they are highly specialized city-states (Luxembourg might as well be a city-state), they cheat on the GDP part, by having a host of things that contribute to their GDP technically but do not exist in the country. They are also very heavily specialized in usually the finance, something the US cannot really do but again they put all their eggs in one basket.

In summery, if you want a true comparison compare to other large industrialized nations.
 
No sir, I'm just curious why you think they are poor if not for lack of human capital.
Lazy bum human capital won't get the job done. Education and productivity is the key.
 
Lazy bum human capital won't get the job done. Education and productivity is the key.

Ok i guess we can agree since i generally define human capital as those last 2 things.
 
who would you consider to be in the USA's class?

Other large industrialized nations who have heavily varied economies and large geographically diverse populations like Germany, France, Canada, etc. not city states with tiny populations or petro-states with small populations and an economy that relies solely on one source of income that comes and goes like the wind.
 
Norway has an oil fund that exceeds its annual GDP. No we are not in that class.

The US also has 64x the population and an economy that does not rely exclusively on oil.
 
The US also has 64x the population and an economy that does not rely exclusively on oil.

doesnt that work against the US, the same way oil works against bahrian? since the US is 3 largest by population and size, aren't these figures based more on that, then anything else?, the USA is technically the largest country on earth if you just count arable land
 
doesnt that work against the US, the same way oil works against bahrian? since the US is 3 largest by population and size, aren't these figures based more on that, then anything else?, the USA is technically the largest country on earth if you just count arable land

In a way yes, it trades hyper specialization for less risk. The US may not grow as much as Norway when oil money is good but when oil goes down the US is not really affected but Norway and the other countries see most of their economy and GDP evaporate.
 
In a way yes, it trades hyper specialization for less risk. The US may not grow as much as Norway when oil money is good but when oil goes down the US is not really affected but Norway and the other countries see most of their economy and GDP evaporate.

no I get it, i was just pointing out that norway isn't a petro state, since a petro state is one that receives a majority of its wealth from oil.... its also technically a derogatory term for small wealthy arab states
 
If that explains it so well then why are these oil countries doing so well right now with oil so cheap?

If this is true then they are doing even better when the prices are up..

We need to quit footing their bills.. Vote Trump..
 
who would you consider to be in the USA's class?
I know that question is addressed to carjosse, but I had the same thought when reading the list and I partially agree with his answer. The USA is #8 on the list, and for 6 of the remaining 7, they are all tiny countries/city-states that benefit from the exclusive ability to offer spectacularly attractive incentives to wealthy citizens/corporations to relocate and operate within their border which larger population countries cannot afford to match. It inflates their GDP per capita and doesn't make for a good comparison.

Also if you don't get what I mean by that, when you have large populations as a country, you need significant revenues (taxes) in order to operate the necessary healthcare, education, welfare, bureaucracies, etc. systems. And comparatively the tiniest countries/city-states don't have this overhead. Therefore they can offer up these crazy tax breaks and corporate benefits that would drive other countries into bankruptcy, but for them is still is enough to be able to cover their operations while at the same time attracts "on-paper" the world's wealthiest and most productive individuals.

However I disagree with Norway not being in the same class as the United States. They've got a large population and also the citizen demands that would normally occur for a non-tiny state. It just so happens that their politicians by chance came up with and managed to execute a genius, world-class plan to use oil revenues to create a gigantic pension fund for everyone.


So you are saying the African continent is not rich in natural resources?
They do not have the institutions nor the human capital to harness their resources.
 
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I know that question is addressed to carjosse, but I had the same thought when reading the list and I partially agree with his answer. The USA is #8 on the list, and for 6 of the remaining 7, they are all tiny countries/city-states that benefit from the exclusive ability to offer spectacularly attractive incentives to wealthy citizens/corporations to relocate and operate within their border which larger population countries cannot afford to match. It inflates their GDP per capita and doesn't make for a good comparison.

Also if you don't get what I mean by that, when you have large populations as a country, you need significant revenues (taxes) in order to operate the necessary healthcare, education, welfare, bureaucracies, etc. systems. And comparatively the tiniest countries/city-states don't have this overhead. Therefore they can offer up these crazy tax breaks and corporate benefits that would drive other countries into bankruptcy, but for them is still is enough to be able to cover their operations while at the same time attracts "on-paper" the world's wealthiest and most productive individuals.

However I disagree with Norway not being in the same class as the United States. They've got a large population and also the citizen demands that would normally occur for a non-tiny state. It just so happens that their politicians by chance came up with and managed to execute a genius, world-class plan to use oil revenues to create a gigantic pension fund for everyone.



They do not have the institutions nor the human capital to harness their resources.

actually the countries listed (aside from switzerland) aren't considered tax havens in fact the USA has less taxes than the majority of those countries, i dont know where this idea comes from that things like "healthcare, education, welfare, bureaucracies, etc." that you listed are some form of charity, you'll notice its the poorest countries in the world that have none of those things, and super low taxes too.

theres also the factor of wealth inequality, which is rampant in the USA, over 41% of americas wealth is owned by the top 1%, as oppose to australia #15 on that list, where the wealthiest 1% own only 2% of the wealth, so if you exclude the top 1% the average australian is much wealthier than the average american

I think the main problem is that gdp per capita is a terrible way too measure the wealth of a country (or really anything for that matter)
 
actually the countries listed (aside from switzerland) aren't considered tax havens in fact the USA has less taxes than the majority of those countries, i dont know where this idea comes from that things like "healthcare, education, welfare, bureaucracies, etc." that you listed are some form of charity, you'll notice its the poorest countries in the world that have none of those things, and super low taxes too.

theres also the factor of wealth inequality, which is rampant in the USA, over 41% of americas wealth is owned by the top 1%, as oppose to australia #15 on that list, where the wealthiest 1% own only 2% of the wealth, so if you exclude the top 1% the average australian is much wealthier than the average american

I think the main problem is that gdp per capita is a terrible way too measure the wealth of a country (or really anything for that matter)

Have you ever been to Australia? Nice country but i can tell you the quality of life is not as high as the USA. Tiny cars, houses not as high quality (many without heat or AC), internet sucks and is very expensive, much higher cost of living, etc, etc.

And to follow up on your previous post, Norway is a very petroleum focused economy. Something like a quarter of their GDP is directly related to oil and gas and it comprises 50% of their exports. Their sovereign wealth fund, funded by oil and gas, has a value that exceeds GDP.
 
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