The US has the second highest per capita GDP in the world, after Luxembourg, (a statistical artifact that we can ignore).
GDP is a blunt instrument. If I pay 100 million people $10.00 to spit on the floor, it would increase the GDP by $1 billion.
There are inefficiencies that artificially increase the US GDP relative to the world:
- A grossly inefficient healthcare delivery system, which is growing at nearly double the rate of the economy as a whole.
- Higher energy consumption per unit of GDP than any other nation on earth. A study determined that Europe was more than 40% more efficient per unit of GDP.
- A grossly inefficient, and quite frankly larcenous, insurance industry.
- Extensive arbitrage activities (mergers and acquisitions, currency and commodities trading, etc.) that do not contribute to productive output.
Some questions for the economists out there:
- What other factors out there effect this, and how to we get a more realistic measure?
- Once you correct for this, where does the US REALLY compare to other industrialized nations.