Still on Top

On the computer one day, I happily typed in "United States Economy" into Wikipedia, hoping that a page would come up that I could skim, and find some useful information to store in the back of my head. I was surprised to find that even though most Americans feel like our economy is falling, we are still on top. Our nominal GDP is still three times the size of the world's second largest economy, Japan. Our GDP by Purchasing Power Parity is twice that of China, the competitor today. I find that we were number two on the Global Competitiveness Report. I thought that we would be second to China, which many Americans would agree with that guess. We were second, however, to Switzerland. So then I thought to myself, what makes the countries other than us economic powerhouses. Most of these countries are European, and many on the right would say "Oh they are socialist, we don't want to be like them at all." Let's look at Sweden and Denmark, who come in at four and five. Sweden has a mixed economy that depends on foreign trade and it has very skilled workers. This may get many right-wingers scratching their heads, but they have a government-funded health care system. Sweden has deregulated its economy since the 1990's but it is still more regulated than ours is today. Now let's move to Denmark. The country boasts the lowest level of income inequality and the highest minimum wage in the world. This country has granted its people a lot of economic freedom compared to other European countries, which can also account for its high ranking. Get this, Denmark also has an almost entirely funded health care system. Now that just doesn't make sense. Low income inequality, high minimum wage, and a government-run health-care system? I wrote this to show that some economies that may seem to be more socialized or "socialistic" than ours, sometimes work. I am not saying that America should be socialist, but I am saying that the countries that will be at the top of the Global Competitiveness Report most likely will not be advocates of laissez-faire capitalism. The other note is that socialized medicine does not ruin an economy the way many people on the right would suggest. If we do not fix our health care system or find a way to fix the financial sectors of our economy, we will be ruined and the answer is a middle-way between socialism and the free-market. I predict that America will be on top of the economy for many years, but if these issues are not addressed reasonably through a study of history and experience, we be knocked off. But for now, we are still #1 overall.