The US Going Down Hill?

Some interesting facts from the 1950's--

America controlled two thirds of the world's productive capacity,

Americans owned 80% of the world's electrical goods and produced 40% of the world's electricity,

America produced 60% of the world's oil and 66% of the steel,

99.93% of the cars sold in 1954 were US brands,

America's 5% of the world's population had more wealth than the other 95%,

By the end of the 1950's GM was a bigger economic entity than Belgium,

Los Angeles had more cars than Asia,

The 1958 Lincoln Continental was 19 feet long.

A lot of people would probably argue these facts (except for the 19 foot Lincoln) illustrate the decline of America.  I don't.  What it shows is how far the rest of the world has come in getting out of poverty and in to global prosperity.  The engines of the growth are the free enterprise system and capitalism.  Sorry but that is a fact.  There is no other explanation. 

Because in the 1950's the rest of the world was a mess.  An economic, military, political mess. 

Most countries looked around and, while trying to beat us, they all basically gave in and copied us.  Us being the United States.  Russia is more like us than when fat communist dictators ran the place and China, well, China is light years ahead of where it was.  Japan, Korea, India--the same thing.  These economies didn't pop up over night.  It took decades of mistakes, failed economic policy, and finally globalization to get things rolling. 

I know globalization is a dirty word in many places but go back to the 1950's and look at the alternative.  You won't want to go there.   

Comments

[John]

Veeery interesting. Where'd you aquire these surprising facts?

[Henk]

GM economically bigger than Belgium ? Quite possible.
But GM doesn't have over 450 different kinds of beer :)
So where would you like to be ? At GM ? Figures ...

[axjms]

Economics is not a zero sum game. I just don't understand all the handwringing about the develeoping world. When I was young it was Japan that was going to take over the world, now it is China. Who's next? Not sure that it is all that important because the US will still be here trading with all of them.