Thursday 2 January 2014

The US Economy, in a nutshell.



Australia wealth per capita
2000 : 74,675 Debt 36,348 (net 40k)
mid 2013 : 301,739 Debt 100,492 (net 200k)

USA wealth per capita:
2000: 137,319 Debt 46,324 (net 90k)
mid 2013: 220,677 Debt 56,811 (net 164k)

Australia 2013 per capita
Mean wealth 402,578
Median wealth 219,505
GDP 93,244

United States 2013 per capita
Mean wealth 301,140
Median wealth 44,911
GDP 68,673

Source : http://www.international-adviser.com/ia/media/Media/Credit-Suisse-Global-Wealth-Databook-2013.pdf

Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer-except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs. ...
Today he and his friends had visited Animal Farm and inspected every inch of it with their own eyes, and what did they find? Not only the most up-to-date methods, but a discipline and an orderliness which should be an example to all farmers everywhere. He believed that he was right in saying that the lower animals on Animal Farm did more work and received less food than any animals in the county. Indeed, he and his fellow-visitors today had observed many features which they intended to introduce on their own farms immediately.
Source : Animal Farm Chapter 10, by George Orwell.

4 comments:

Paula said...

Scary, and I'm English!

Anonymous said...

When you divide the finite resources among more people each gets less as machines do the work.

Rob

Joseph said...

The GDP figures disagree with this list.

The wealth figures may be an illusion. Is Australia going through a real-estate bubble?

Zoe Brain said...

The Credit Suisse numbers are on a different basis, and different measure.
But they conform relative to one another with the other figures on Wiki.

As regards housing bubble - demand exceeds supply. Slow steady growth over decades. Low interest rates keep prices high as people can afford to buy and pay off (30% plus deposit needed though).

It's a product of population concentration. When the next nearest city is 1000km away, it tends to lead to high prices near the centres. Also, cost of construction isn't cheap due to high minimum wages. You don't get the same value for money as elsewhere.