What a weird response. It is, to say the least, counterintuitive that, when PPP-adjusted, Mississipeans have greater buying power than Germans. It either suggests that something is wrong with the author's naive methodology of ranking countries, or that something weird is going on in Germany.
I think it's easy for Americans -- especially the educated and cosmopolitan-minded -- to idealize other countries.
Speaking as one, we're most likely to see their wealthy, urban, tourist-friendly areas. We're most likely to interact with foreign elites who travel here or work in international businesses.
We only pay their internal higher prices -- from their smaller and often more-oligopolistic domestic markets, and higher taxes -- on brief trips where we are price-insensitive, as tourists or corporate travelers.
That most people in admirable, 'rich', developed countries live simple, frugal lives -- by American standards -- can thus be surprising, even though it shouldn't be.
Some of us Americans live in foreign countries and are well past idealizing them, but take them for what they are; both things that are, in our opinions, way better than the US, or much worse.
It's a complicated enough matter that I could talk about it all night over a bottle of wine. Suffice it to say, however, that "Mississippi is richer than Europe" is stupid flame-bait. It's more or less on the level of snotty Europeans who think Americans are dumb. Couldn't we leave silly pissing matches like that to other sites? Pretty please?
The same statement can be flame-bait or a spark for thoughtful discussion, depending on the presentation and participants.
Stated without nationalistic puffery, "According to a respected economic measure (purchasing-power parity), Mississippi produces more, per-capita, than almost any country in Europe", among the right audience, is a very interesting thing to talk about.
Let's choose to see it as an invitation to subtle discussion among respectful participants, rather than patriotic pissing.
Hm, the problem with PPP is that it's very unclear what it's measuring. Someone with a wal-mart nearby has a higher "PPP" than someone without it. Definitely Americans have access to a lot of cheap crap; it would not surprise me if an average income earner in the Mississippi could indeed buy more random junk each year than your average German.
Purchasing power and quality of life, though, are two very different things. The idea that your average "Mississipean" has a higher quality of life than your average German is laughable. Intuitively, I would have thought Germany was higher overall than the USA, quite a lot higher.
So, if that's true --- and I live in a major US metro, I'm not a Mississipi booster --- you should be able to provide some metric justifying it. What about Germany makes it better than Jackson?
(in response to the earlier comment that was "when did HN become a forum for politics" prior to edit - though I think this still applies) I'd agree that topics like this clearly straddle the line but they're also of interest to at least some of us - especially given the underlying question of what policies help/hurt us and create wealth? Some politics are unavoidable given their impact on startups.
It's also a pretty interesting factoid especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis that provides a bit of perspective where nearly every country is doing some introspective as to how it happened and when at least the US is about to adopt some policies that you could call European.
Comments
When did HN become a forum for country dickwaving?
What a weird response. It is, to say the least, counterintuitive that, when PPP-adjusted, Mississipeans have greater buying power than Germans. It either suggests that something is wrong with the author's naive methodology of ranking countries, or that something weird is going on in Germany.
I think it's easy for Americans -- especially the educated and cosmopolitan-minded -- to idealize other countries.
Speaking as one, we're most likely to see their wealthy, urban, tourist-friendly areas. We're most likely to interact with foreign elites who travel here or work in international businesses.
We only pay their internal higher prices -- from their smaller and often more-oligopolistic domestic markets, and higher taxes -- on brief trips where we are price-insensitive, as tourists or corporate travelers.
That most people in admirable, 'rich', developed countries live simple, frugal lives -- by American standards -- can thus be surprising, even though it shouldn't be.
Some of us Americans live in foreign countries and are well past idealizing them, but take them for what they are; both things that are, in our opinions, way better than the US, or much worse.
It's a complicated enough matter that I could talk about it all night over a bottle of wine. Suffice it to say, however, that "Mississippi is richer than Europe" is stupid flame-bait. It's more or less on the level of snotty Europeans who think Americans are dumb. Couldn't we leave silly pissing matches like that to other sites? Pretty please?
The same statement can be flame-bait or a spark for thoughtful discussion, depending on the presentation and participants.
Stated without nationalistic puffery, "According to a respected economic measure (purchasing-power parity), Mississippi produces more, per-capita, than almost any country in Europe", among the right audience, is a very interesting thing to talk about.
Let's choose to see it as an invitation to subtle discussion among respectful participants, rather than patriotic pissing.
I thought it was a pretty rational response if you're not interested in seeing this site filled with flame-bait like this.
Hm, the problem with PPP is that it's very unclear what it's measuring. Someone with a wal-mart nearby has a higher "PPP" than someone without it. Definitely Americans have access to a lot of cheap crap; it would not surprise me if an average income earner in the Mississippi could indeed buy more random junk each year than your average German.
Purchasing power and quality of life, though, are two very different things. The idea that your average "Mississipean" has a higher quality of life than your average German is laughable. Intuitively, I would have thought Germany was higher overall than the USA, quite a lot higher.
So, if that's true --- and I live in a major US metro, I'm not a Mississipi booster --- you should be able to provide some metric justifying it. What about Germany makes it better than Jackson?
(in response to the earlier comment that was "when did HN become a forum for politics" prior to edit - though I think this still applies) I'd agree that topics like this clearly straddle the line but they're also of interest to at least some of us - especially given the underlying question of what policies help/hurt us and create wealth? Some politics are unavoidable given their impact on startups.
It's also a pretty interesting factoid especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis that provides a bit of perspective where nearly every country is doing some introspective as to how it happened and when at least the US is about to adopt some policies that you could call European.