
Why the U.S. Is Still Richer Than Every Other Large Country - KoftaBob
https://hbr.org/2017/04/why-the-u-s-is-still-richer-than-every-other-large-country
======
mcv
While some of these points are undoubtedly true, there are also a couple that
sound questionable to me:

> _" Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large
> trade unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor
> regulations."_

As far as I'm aware the US is the only western country where trade unions
impede linking workers and jobs. Netherland, for example, has pretty large and
powerful trade unions, but membership is never compulsory. There's no such
thing as a union shop. Unions merely represent their members in salary
negotiations and assist them in labour disputes.

> _" there are virtually no state-owned enterprises"_

Many European countries have privatised a lot of industries during the 1990s.
In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the USPS is still state owned, while in other
countries, postal services have been privatised (personally I think that was a
mistake, although with phone companies, it seems it have worked out well).

> _" A culture (and a tax system) that encourages hard work and long hours."_

It certainly does but I'm not sure how much of a positive that is. In the EU,
Greeks work the longest hours, Dutch work the least. Yet Netherland has a much
higher GDP per capita. Long hours don't always mean high productivity, and it
can also mean burned out workers.

Besides, is it more important to have high GDP, or to have a happy population?
My impression is that the US has a lot more poverty than many European
countries.

------
tonyedgecombe
_An entrepreneurial culture._

Yet there are statistics showing the US is becoming more centralised, business
is becoming concentrated in fewer and larger companies.

 _World-class research universities._

Which the UK also has. Germany less so but it's richer than the UK.

 _Labor markets that generally link workers and jobs unimpeded by large trade
unions, state-owned enterprises, or excessively restrictive labor
regulations._

Again the UK is relatively free of trade union interference but still
considerably less well off.

 _A growing population, including from immigration._

Again the UK has a growing population, even after Brexit.

 _A culture (and a tax system) that encourages hard work and long hours._

The country with the longest hours in Europe is Greece, one of the poorer
regions. Germany and the Netherlands work fewer hours but are much better off
than Greece.

 _A smaller size of government than in other industrial countries._

According to the article France has a much bigger state than Italy but France
is also much better off.

 _A decentralized political system in which states compete._

The UK has a very centralised state, its probably one of the reasons we dealt
with Covid so poorly.

As someone running a business in the UK the one thing I would love to have is
such a large homogeneous home market. Even within the EU selling into other
European countries is much more work than into the UK.

------
chmod775
Data from the article:

    
    
        Country, real GDP per cap, hours worked, GDP / hour
        USA    , $56,000         , 1800        , $31.11
        Germany, $47,000         , 1400        , $33.57
    

Huh. I wonder if this makes their other points kind of moot, since it would
appear you don't need to do anything besides having a workforce that doesn't
get on average 5 weeks of paid vacation a year.

