That reminds me, there was also this that came out: https://archive.ph/bpKLT
https://archive.ph/jZAXN
>America in decline? Data shows even its poorest states now outperform most G7 economies
<In 1990, the United States accounted for roughly 26 percent of global gross domestic product. More than three decades later, and after repeated predictions of China’s inevitable overtaking, the US share remains virtually unchanged at about 25.9 percent, assuming Beijing’s own growth figures are accurate. That consistency matters because the global economy is far larger today than it was at the end of the Cold War, with US output alone reaching an estimated $30.62 trillion in 2025.
<The contrast with America’s closest allies is stark. When the Cold War ended, Britain, France, Italy, Japan and Canada together represented around 32 percent of global GDP.
<Today, that combined share has fallen to below 14 percent. This relative contraction reflects weaker productivity growth, demographic pressure and prolonged underinvestment, particularly in Europe and Japan.
<At a more granular level, per-capita comparisons underline the divergence. Using datafrom the International Monetary Fund, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Census Bureau, Mississippi, the poorest US state by GDP per capita, now outperforms four G7 countries on the same measure, while West Virginia with the second-lowest per capita GDP surpasses all six non-US G7 members. Since 2020, US GDP per capita has risen by roughly $20,000, a gain no other G7 economy has matched even over much longer periods.
<Productivity has been a decisive factor in this widening gap. The United States has outpaced the rest of the G7 in productivity growth, both nationally and at state level, driven by technology adoption, capital depth and labour mobility. Europe’s struggle to keep up has been formally acknowledged at the highest levels.
<Mario Draghi’s 2024 report on European competitiveness, commissioned by the European Commission, warned that Europe is losing ground to the US and China in productivity, innovation and technological scale. Without EU-wide industrial policy, deeper capital-market integration, large-scale joint investment in digital and green technologies, and a break from what Draghi called a “small-state mentality”, he argued the continent faces a “slow agony”: weaker growth, declining industrial capacity, falling global influence and a shrinking ability to fund social and strategic priorities over time.
<The resilience of the US economy is also reflected in the accumulation of private wealth. According to Altrata’s World Ultra Wealth Report 2025, the United States now houses 38 percent of the world’s ultra-high-net-worth population, individuals worth more than $30 million, a larger share than the next ten countries combined. In absolute terms, 192,470 Americans control approximately $22.3 trillion in private wealth.
<The pace of accumulation has accelerated rather than slowed. Altrata reports that the number of ultra-wealthy Americans rose by 21 percent in the past year alone. China, the nearest competitor, holds about $5.9 trillion across 54,020 individuals, a fraction of the US total. Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, France, Italy and India all trail at a considerable distance.
<This concentration is not confined to inherited fortunes. The United States continues to generate new wealth through entrepreneurship at a scale unmatched elsewhere. Of the world’s five richest individuals, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Larry Page, all are American and all built fortunes rooted in technology platforms that reshaped entire industries. Their companies function as capital-generating ecosystems, reinforcing US dominance in finance, innovation and market depth.
<Altrata’s Billionaire Census 2025 adds another layer. North America’s billionaire population rose by 7.8 percent last year to 1,198 individuals, of whom 1,135 are American. Their combined wealth now exceeds $13 trillion, more than the market capitalisation of Apple, Microsoft and NVIDIA combined.
https://archive.ph/su8j4
>GDP per capita is an average. It tells you what the economy produces per person. It says nothing about what typicalpeople actually pocket after taxes, healthcare costs, and the general business of modern life.
>So let’s look at median disposable income, which is what the person in the middle of the distribution actually has to spend.
>The UK’s Office for National Statistics reports that median household disposable income is about £36,700 for the year ending 2024. Convert that to purchasing power parity dollars and spread it across household members, and the typical Briton is living on roughly $21,000–25,000 a year in real, spendable income.
>Mississippi’s median household income is around $56,000–57,000. Adjust upward for the state’s rock-bottom price level — Mississippi is the cheapest state in America to live in, with a regional price parity index of just 84 — and the typical Mississippian has the purchasing power of roughly $35,000–38,000 a year.
>That’s a gap of 50–60%. Not in the UK’s favor.
>Britain, a country with a nuclear arsenal, a permanent UN Security Council seat, and an insufferable combination of snobbery and imperial hangover, is delivering its median citizen a standard of living meaningfully below that of the people America uses as its go-to punchline for rural poverty.
>“But the NHS!” I Hear You Cry
>Yes, yes. The caveats are real and worth noting, if only so you can’t accuse this column of cherry-picking.
>...
>But here is what is also true: the median Briton — not the poor, not the rich, the person bang in the middle of the distribution — is living on less disposable purchasing power than the median resident of the state where, as the joke goes, the schools are so bad they make you feel better about everywhere else.
>At least, that’s what the Office for National Statistics (ONS) spreadsheet says.