STOP SAYING America is the Wealthiest Country in the World!

take a look at Monaco Monaco Luxembourg
Liechtenstein these are countries where their measure of wealth their GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is double the wealth of the United States these are the wealthiest countries in the world does it matter well if it didn't matter politicians like Bernie Sanders wouldn't be out there lying claiming that the United States is the wealthiest country in the world never forget not for one moment that you are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world seeing the wealth and poverty of the American people in perspective relative to other real world examples he's important it matters it's going to inform our choices as a society as a democracy etc etc and lying to people and reinforcing this kind of baseless egomaniacal delusion that the United States is an extraordinarily wealthy country how does that help anyone in the English language we have this peculiar contrast between something being incorrect and something being wrong never forget not for one moment that you are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world many many many politicians make this claim that the United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world and I understand they are normally making that claim in a sort of morally well-intentioned context like they mean to suggest to you that the United States of America does not have an excuse for failing to solve its own problems that the United States of America should hold itself to a higher standard should do something better or more charitable or more excellent because because because the United States of America is they say the wealthiest country in the world it is incorrect to claim that the United States is the wealthiest country world and also it is wrong nothing how do you feel about the quality of the education you're getting in some questions we don't have books in the classes oh we do have books they're falling apart and what about the quality of your teachers my teachers are the best they work as hard as they can but how how can you work that hard in the class and when you have to balance two or three jobs and also try to support your own family so it's hard on them and it's just they're working two or three jobs yes so my teachers tell us like I gotta go I have to go to my second job I should go pick up my own kids so yeah my teachers deserve better they sure do then you deserve better never forget not for one moment that you are living in the wealthiest country in the history of the world when you look at this chart do you see the United States as the wealthiest country in the world well this country though if the world's ever known no this is a chart showing you um gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity right and if anyone looked at this chart they'd say well the United States is less wealthy than Switzerland but slightly more wealthy than other ones so if you think of the Netherlands as a normal country that means the United States is also just a normal country if you think of the Netherlands as an extraordinarily wealthy country then nevertheless the United States is ordinary precisely because it matches that same mark of extraordinariness the United States is a country when you look at these numbers that is just slightly wealthier than Germany right this is not the only statistic but this is one statistic that very rapidly gives you a sense of wealth and poverty in a country it's not calibrated to to finally but when you look at these numbers guess what Ireland is much much wealthier than the United States America that's not a rounding error that's not just a few percentage points it turns out Ireland really is wealthier than the United States America and this has certain kinds of ethical implications okay you may not know this Ireland spends less on the military than any other country in Europe they spend less on the military than almost any country in the world they have a very very small military budget they're actually a couple countries that are proud to have an even lower what's great budget than Ireland well who's gonna help Ukraine why is it the American taxpayer who is right now helping Ukraine who is gonna help Cyprus the island of Cyprus all right there were British Armed Forces there in the past that were Canadian Armed Forces as peacekeepers who's gonna help Cyprus half the island is under occupation from the Turks okay these things cost money it's the British taxpayer paying for troops in Cyprus it's the American taxpayer paying for troops in Ukraine right who's who's gonna provide military assistance to Ukraine not Ireland well if you know that Ireland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world if you know that Ireland is actually significantly wealthier than the United States of America some of those questions some of those questions and moral responsibility with military budgets and humanitarian aid they start to be asked and a slightly different matter no this is not a groundbreaking tremendously important issue but I'm raising it as an example because this puts the wealth of the United States in context America is not the wealthiest country in the world when people visit the United States America from Europe they aren't impressed they don't think wow what an amazingly wealthy country and there's a reason for that it's by the same token when most Americans visit Ireland they don't think Ireland is an amazingly wealthy country Ireland is somewhat wealthier than the United States but you know what that still is at the top of the scale we can keep going up up up here take a look at Monaco Monaco Luxembourg Liechtenstein these are countries where their measure of wealth their GDP per capita at purchasing power parity is double the wealth of the United States these are the wealthiest countries in the world does it matter well if it didn't matter politicians like Bernie Sanders wouldn't be out there lying claiming that the United States is the wealthiest country in the world seeing the wealth and poverty of the American people in perspective relative to other real-world examples he's important it matters it's going to inform our choices as a society as a democracy etc etc and lying to people and reinforcing this kind of baseless egomaniacal delusion that the United States is an extraordinarily wealthy country how does that help anyone now above and beyond the wealth or poverty of the people there was the question of how much the government can do here's a comparison of the United States to Argentina it's not debated right now Argentina is in an economic crisis if you look at the chart there the line towards the very right hand side the most recent part of the line shoots upward it shoots upward to 86.2% debt to GDP ratio and that's a crisis whole country is in crisis the line thinnest America covers a much longer period of time it's not the same time scale for these two charts but nevertheless you can see within my lifetime last 20 years the line has gotten worse and worse the United States also but for the United States it's now above a hundred percent it's a hundred and six percent so we're all willing to recognize that Argentina has a problem Argentina has a crisis at 86% Argentina the government of Argentina has got to spend less money because the amount of tax revenue they can raise from their people only supports a certain finite level of spending why can't we have that same humble recognition above the United States of America why can't we stop repeating this mythology that America is the richest country in the world when it's not even if they were the richest country in the world even if they were as as wealthy as Ireland or Monaco they would still have a finite amount of funds that can spend on these endless interventions these wars without end and indeed the social programs that it's a real question also we're now looking at proposals for new forms of health care new forms of social services intervention Sweden Sweden is often cited as a positive example of a country where it has very high quality Social Services is very good prisons very good hospitals and this sort of thing Sweden ranking fifth in a european survey of healthcare quality the life expectancy by the way in sweden is 81 years that's three years more than in this country in sweden people go to a publicly run health care center for all medical needs the clinics are run by the 21 separate counties in sweden doctors work on straight salary for the clinic Richard Saltzman has been studying and working with the Swedish healthcare system for 25 years overall it's a very effective system the Swedes consider it to be one of the best in the world the statistics are impressive life expectancy of 81 years vs. 78 in the United States Sweden's health care costs are 9% of GDP less than the u.s. 16 percent per capita spending half at three thousand three hundred and twenty three dollars versus seven thousand two hundred ninety in the US and there is one doctor for every two hundred and seventy seven people compared to one in four hundred and sixteen for the US how much debt is Sweden in with its very limited tax base very small country the small population small economy frankly thirty eight point eight percent so is Sweden the wealthiest country in the world is sweet and extraordinarily wealthy the wealth of the people the wealth of the government the quality of life is sweet and extraordinary or should we take the much more humbling view that Sweden is just ordinary and that the United States of America and Canada are actually doing really poorly compared to Sweden right this myth of our extraordinariness in the United States and in Canada it's not just challenged by looking at these numbers I think it's humbled in a really useful really dynamic way Denmark is Denmark the wealthiest country in the world no Denmark we should just look at as normal but Denmark is managing to provide extraordinarily high quality social services extraordinarily generous welfare state you know education for the unemployed and so on and so far they're famous for taking very good care of all their disabled people all these wonderful things thirty-four percent debt to GDP ratio and that's it's America over a hundred and six and no and insight Luxembourg the Luxembourg was mentioned before genuinely could be considered the wealthiest country in the world they are if not the wealthiest nearly so so enormous amount of money going around in people's bank accounts in Luxembourg somehow their government only 21 percent debt to GDP ratio so not just the wealth of the people the wealth of the government is extraordinary the government there could take on extraordinary new projects and run up extraordinary new debts the government in Luxembourg is in a position to try radical new experiments with ecology radical new experiments with healthcare radical new experiments with land reform helping the poor or something in the United States of America he's not the United States America is very fundamentally in a much more fragile position not as bad as Argentina but still you should be open to learning from experience learning from the disaster that's still ongoing energy Tawan Tawan has a very active muscular government its spends a lot of money on the military it's in a constant state of war with communist china next door cold war or low-level war whatever you want to say it has to fight for its independence it spends a lot of money on health care it's means a lot of money on education so in service but only 30% 30.9% I should say debt to GDP ratio right very powerful economy in some ways a tremendously affluent society there is almost zero poverty in Taiwan even though you know they don't show up at the top of the chart anywhere near Luxembourg they're not anywhere near Ireland even all right in some ways Taiwan is really a more affluent society than it says American they're in a much better position for the government to take on new projects on a massive scale whether that's building new railroads new ecological initiatives new health care system you name it right and finally let's just take a brief glance at the nemesis of the United States America and foreign policy Russia Russia is a tiny economy compared the United States of America their economy is about the same sizes Italy right they're tiny they're not economically powerful they're not mighty but somehow somehow they're managing to sustain their army they're military you know engagement in Syria and so on without bankrupting themselves while the United States is 106 percent debt to GDP ratio Russia is only 13.5 percent I'm old and let me tell you something I don't go on for any of this stuff of saying I'm young at heart I'm over 40 years old and I'm old at heart but there's one important respect in which I managed to avoid the narrow mindedness of middle age and that is that I'm constantly aware of and constantly challenging myself on these types of thought terminating cliches becomes a cliche that America is the richest country in the world that Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world people say it over and over again sometimes using it sincerely to call on American politician stance to a higher standard sometimes using it cynically to justify one political decision over another one policy direction over another sometimes it's used to justify ignoring millions and millions of dollars being spent on military adventures overseas the first lesson that all of us should learn from this example is to live with this discipline in our own lives of questioning investigating challenging and overturning the things that we presume to be true for just a couple of months I got into the habit of saying that Sweden has one of the greatest educational systems in the world and I remember the exact history of how I got that idea I'm cursed with an acumen right and I stopped just a few weeks ago and thought you know what I never really did any reading or investigation I looked into it and I found out the education system in Sweden has some really serious problems it really does they're they've made some really bad choices they actually have really serious political questions to ask themselves and a really serious challenge of reform now and trying to save the Swedish education system it has some advantages okay that was eye-opening that was educational all right I'm not gonna go on into my middle-age into my 50s and into my 60s repeating that in an unsure way when the truth is you know somehow all that crept in is an assumption that Sweden is a really positive example and you look into it and you say well you know what there's a lot we can learn from the history of what happened with the Swedish education system but it ain't all good it's what you're gonna hear from Sweden my warning here is not specific to the left-wing it's not specific to the right-wing it's not specific to the moderate Center no matter who you are no matter what your concerns are no matter what your aspirations are for a better society don't let people bully you with these stated assumptions about what everybody knows don't let them bully you and don't let yourself sink into this habit of mind of invoking conventional wisdom that cannot be challenged when people try to tell you everybody knows that policies about getting tough on drugs don't work when people tell you everybody knows that in Portugal and Switzerland they made heroin and cocaine legal and it completely solved the drug problem right these are things put no tumor people have said to me everybody knows and it's like a 5-minute Google search just a little bit of reading and you start to figure out hey you know what we can learn some things from drug policy in Switzerland we can learn some things from drug policy in Portugal it all positive it ain't okay gee you know what make some bad choices in Portugal yeah you know what drug policy in Los Angeles the United States may be a disaster hmm what about drug policy in Singapore what about drug policy in communist China what if there are some other lessons to be learned here don't let people bully you with what seemed to be self-evident truths like this idea that the United States of America is the wealthiest country in the world like this idea the United States of America has unlimited tax dollars it just takes a little bit of google searching a little bit of challenging yourself of educating yourself and when you live by that standard when you really do hold yourself to that higher standard I think it's fair for you to go around with an open heart and an open mind and challenge others to live up to it also to say to others hey look I'm engaged in questioning how I know things I'm engaged in examining my own assumptions and where they come from I'm still out here learning new things at age 41 or whatever age you happen to be so why not you - why can't you step it up and move past invoking these thought terminating cliches these cliches that serve to put an end to rational discourse and hem you in and define the world for you why not say hey wait a minute how do we know the things that we think we know maybe if we just examine them a little bit maybe we're gonna find that what gets said behind a podium by politicians those aren't things we really know [Music]