As Britain’s economy has half slumbered, half stumbled its way through the nine years since, pausing to commit occasional acts of egregious self-sabotage, the Mississippi Question has only grown more popular. Could this be the year the UK economy is surpassed by that of the US state with America’s highest poverty rate and a life expectancy almost 10 years shorter than Britain’s? For a fleeting moment recently, it looked like the time had come, but this was due to an erroneous comparison of nominal figures for Mississippi with inflation-adjusted numbers for the UK. So no, the short answer is that to date, Britain remains free of that one particular ignominy. GDP per capita has remained ahead of Mississippi’s by about 15 per cent over the past two decades, and indeed as recently as 2019 the UK ranked ahead of no fewer than six of America’s poorest and most economically anaemic states. Heady days, indeed.
@QuokkaLillianDemocrat2yrs2Y
Hm I am sure this says something but also indicates why GDP is a poor metric for general wellbeing; if I was truly down and out, I'd still definitely prefer ending up in Saxony Anhalt over Mississipi.
@L1bertyBradSocialist2yrs2Y
I wonder what happens if you correct for the annual cost of healthcare needed in US though...
@QuokkaLillianDemocrat2yrs2Y
Valid point. What if you also correct for cost of housing? Then London (and some US cities) would look much less rich. This all ignores wealth distribution, of course. E.g. being a tenant in London makes you poorer, being a landlord makes you richer.
@L1bertyBradSocialist2yrs2Y
That’s the drawback of the approach.
But why I mentioned healthcare is that it is a nationwide issue in US and elsewhere.
PPP exchange rates might capture the health costs, but I am not sure hence the suggestion
@QuokkaLillianDemocrat2yrs2Y
Per capita figures may not tell us enough, when they are averages including extreme poverty and wealth.
We could calculate what it costs to live at various different standards of living in a region, and compare that the the distribution of incomes, to see how well people live.
@L3ftyMariaConstitution2yrs2Y
Given that Wales was given Economic Zone One status in the EU, if we were to focus on Wales alone it would probably place even further down that chart.
In the UK's position, I'd rejoin the EU and go London maximalist.
Anything whose been up norf knows its a derelict wasteland, brain drained for 2 centuries, with no prospects. Makes more sense to double down on the winners.
This is a crazy take - economics should be the art of making life better for people, how does continuing with a model which fails the overwhelming majority of the population achieve that?
@R3gulationArtRepublican2yrs2Y
The UK needs to re-diversify its economy - we need huge state investment in infrastructure and incentives for industry and manufacturing geared at those 'left behind' areas
They should totally abandon “leveling up” and let London evolve into a megalopolis containing 40%+ of the British population. Oxford should be denser than Manhattan
@GerrymanderLukeDemocrat2yrs2Y
Greater Tokyo is housing 1/3 of all Japanese. Tel Aviv 70% of all Israeli Jews. Without housing regulation London could easily double its population.
Sometimes I wonder if, no housing regulation, people in all countries would just move to one single city.
@HoopoeDanny2yrs2Y
With massive population decline on the horizon in the G20, population concentration in large cities (or specially in the largest city/capital) is the most likely scenario. Something similar played out in the post-Soviet countries and continues to this day.
@CheerfulTruffle2yrs2Y
And yet when you travel to San Francisco, the highest scorer on that scale, homeless people are everywhere.
Maybe it doesn't tell the important story. Just where large companies choose to call home and it's little to do with actual personal wealth.
Loading the political themes of users that engaged with this discussion
Loading data...
Join in on more popular conversations.
