A low GDP per capita economy
Still higher than some countries who manage much more. We beat Korea, Japan, Spain, hell, we edge out France.
significant logistics chains and costs
Good thing we are getting some new Toyota Carolla Ferrys to help make those logistic chains better!
low nation ownership of productive assets and banks
The same party that is now claiming we need austerity, also sold of several of those productive assets.
lack of economies of scale from infrastructure spread over a wide area with low population
Fair. I think most of our main infra is pretty consolidated, but a large portion of our economy is based on farming, which by it’s very nature, is spread out.
surprisingly lack of accountability for project over runs…
On this we agree. I also think that cancelling good projects, simply because it’s the “other sides” project, should also have accountability.
You thought France had a 1.2 million USD per capita GDP? At that rate their GDP would be… 82 trillion. Dwarfing Chinas mere 18 trillion.
Honestly, I went to a country per capita list, and picked out some names that stuck out. I’m not sure if you could ever find a country that’s really comparable, in many ways we are at the end of everything.
One of my big pushes in the last year has been to pay attention to food miles when purchasing… and sweet fucking jesus. The cheap stuff we import, and then sell our expensive goods overseas for minor margins.
I think this is a trap. A lot of our problems come from how easy it is to change things, IMHO. I’m not going to go find a source now (eating my lunch), but our democracy is unique is how easy it is to change laws. A lot of other countries have more checks and balances than we go, eg a upper house. Though in comparison we have the check and balance of MMP and multiple parties having to form a coalition.