Oh Say Could You See? - an Analysis on the Status of the United States of America on the World Stage

Adam Ontiveros-Oberg
December 2, 2014
Essay #5; Dr. Scipione,
INTD 105  Affluence in America

Oh Say Could You See?
An analysis on the status of the United States of America on the world stage.

        Politicians and pundits often try to spread ideals or opinions they hold of what we, as a nation, should be. Some, the vocal majority, are of the opinion that we have an obligation to be the police force, the doctors, the philanthropists, and the sentinels of the “tired, [the] poor, [the] huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” They see ours as a world wherein we have a moral obligation to “…lift [a] lamp beside the golden door” (Goodreads n. pag.).

        It is the opinion of this writer that this self-incurred burden is something that we are far from being worthy of carrying. Many consider the 20th century to have been the “American” century; but I believe that this great nation has fallen from the pedestal it claimed for itself. To support this claim, I will compare American statistics to those of other nations; chiefly, GDP, GNP, average familial income, among other categories. I believe that economic categories are the most likely to remain un-influenced by opinion or bias, especially compared to social categories.

        First to be discussed is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Simply defined, this is the amount of money that is the total dollar value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period; for the US, this is usually defined as a fiscal year. It can be accurately summed up as the size of the economy. Most often, GDP is expressed as a percentage of the year before. For example, a 3% increase in a nation’s GDP means that said nation’s economy is 3% larger than the year before (Investopedia n.pag). Now, if we look at the United States, we see that in 2010, it was $14,958,300,000,000 (14.98 trillion dollars). In 2011, the GDP was $15,533,800,000,000 (15.53 trillion dollars); a virtually incomprehensible amount of money. This represents a change of .03847%. In the gap between 2011 and 2012, the change was .04575%, between 2012 and 2013, it was .03418%. From 2010 to 2013, the total change in GDP was approximately 12%. Economists are happy to see these figures. These changes are positive percentages, signifying that the economy of our nation is growing, although at a very incremental rate. That said it is quite a small increase, compared to increases that some competing economies are seeing. From 2010 to 2013, China saw an increase of 55.809239%, resolving to $9,240,270,452,050 (9.24 trillion dollars) at the close of their fiscal year. In the same period, Russia saw an increase of 37.50114%, coming to $2,096,777,030,571 (2.09 trillion dollars). Australia saw a change of 36.67945%, coming to $1,560,597,150,412 (1.5 trillion dollars). These changes are not isolated to the other side of the oceans. Central and South America are also seeing vast increases in GDP. Just south of the border, Mexico saw an increase of 19.90121%. (Worldbank GDP, n.pag). Detractors of this argument would simply say that, yes, although the US GDP is increasing at a smaller rate than some of these smaller, developing nations, we as a country have such a larger volume of capital that the rise in smaller countries is virtually insignificant. And that is true in part. The United States has an economy that has such a volume that it can hardly get any bigger without risking severe inflation and even more extreme wealth distribution gaps. These smaller countries do not have these problems; their economies, while smaller, and more fragile, are still more egalitarian in that they mandate equal benefits for all. Meaning, that if one group is going to prosper to an extreme, they will have to risk losing it to people who don’t have as much. And of course, that does not take into account that the cheaper the country, the more jobs there will be; it is common knowledge among business-leaders that manufacturing and other low-skill jobs are outsourced to areas with smaller, more sound economies. In summation, the United States’ economy has simply gotten to a point where its expansion has been so extreme that it can barely get any bigger, like the way a rubber band cannot be stretched any more after a certain point. But while the US is bound by its size, smaller countries are unbounded by their size and are free to expand and develop.

        Another area of financial comparison between the US and other countries that demonstrates the falling influence of American finances is the amount that the citizens of any given nation are receiving, in this paper, analyzed in the form of household income, and how their social setting benefits from that income. According to the OCED Better Life Index, a website that specifically rates the general well-being of citizens or tourists in many countries, the United States does pretty well in virtually every area tested; housing, income, health, community, environmental interest, etc. The OECD, for each of the aforementioned categories, and a few others, finds an average value for whatever category, and with that, shows you how the country you are researching compares. The OECD average household income is approximately $39,531, which is approximately 40% more than the OECD average of $23,938 dollars. The trend is consistent in other areas: 67% of people between the ages of 15 and 64 have a paid job, which is two percentage points above the OECD average. And those workers on average work 1,790 hours, almost 30 hours more than the average (OECD United States, n.pag). All of these statistics are well and good, but unfortunately, they are very comparable to those of a country to which most Americans wouldn’t want to be compared. The Russian Federation has an average household income of $20, 230, per annum. 69% of citizenry between the ages of 15 and 64 are employed, four percentage-points above OECD’s average. Russians work a yearly average of 1,984 hours a year, which is more than 200 hours more than the OECD’s average. That said, there are a shocking number of financial similarities between the United States and Russia, with the former picturing itself as the bastion of freedom and democracy, while the latter is viewed by many Americans as being financially destitute. Both countries have a yearly rise of approximately 2% with regards to household income. Both countries are also extremely unequal between classes: The OECD’s scale uses zero as perfectly equal, up to 10. The US has a score of 7.92, while Russia has a score of 6.92.