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Charting global economic potential
The U.S. is extraordinarily dominant in terms of global GDP per capita after decades of rapid growth. Comparing economic prosperity and living standards, the U.S. is unmatched among great nations.
By relative growth, China’s economic ascent has been remarkable as well — yet significantly behind “developed” nations such as Europe or Japan. However, China’s GDP has recently surpassed Europe and is far above Japan in nominal terms.
After its historic tech boom and bust, Japan’s economy has been stagnant — although living standards have stayed fairly high (for older people at least). China’s GDP is currently near $17T while the U.S. is above $27T. What’s remarkable, however, is that the U.S. population is nearly 1/5th of China.
While China will likely continue to gain dominance in the 21st century (although its population seems to be topping out), population growth shows India will also play a major…
