re: World GDP rose by 35% over the last 10 years yet GDP of USA was a modest 28%

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If you have 1 billion dollars and make another 100 million, but some homeless Somalian goes from a net worth of $1 to $2, did he end up better than you because his net worth grew by 100

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According to Robin masters he outperformed you by 90% and the US is the laughing stock of Somalia

Have you ever heard of convergence theory or the concept of the developing world?

Of course countries like India, China, and Indonesia are posting higher GDP growth rates—they’re starting from much lower baselines. When a nation transitions from agrarian poverty to industrialization, you’ll naturally see larger percentage gains. That’s not a failure of the U.S.—it’s a sign that global capitalism is doing exactly what it’s supposed to: lifting more people out of poverty.

The U.S. already has a mature, service-based economy. Sustained 2–3% annual GDP growth from a $25 trillion base is an entirely different animal than 6% growth in a $3 trillion economy. Absolute gains matter more than relative percentages. In fact, the U.S. has added over $5 trillion to its GDP in the last decade—more than the entire GDP of most of the countries on that list.

This isn’t a race where someone has to lose for others to win. It’s not zero-sum. Global growth driven by free markets, trade, and innovation is a rising tide that can lift all boats—if we don’t torpedo ourselves with economic illiteracy.

Between this thread and the "Did the Economist" thread tonight, they're not sending their best

how is it possible not to understand this?
oh wait....

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The rest of the world we're behind in growth are able to do fast catch-up growth because they're able to adopt innovations created by advanced countries that they don't have (like building airports, advanced ports, bridges, roads, other infrastructure). We have invest more for lower growth because for us to grow, we're innovating and that's more expensive and slower than copy-cat. It's apples and oranges.

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Again, I don’t think matching the avg growth rate of the rest of the world is too much to ask. We seem to be well below it. But maybe I’m the crazy one. I’ve been wrong before…summer of 96 if I remember correctly. It was a Tuesday.

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I actually did some napkin math for people who don't math good

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Ironically, your percentage math ignored percentages.

While you do need more growth, you have more workers to produce that growth.

That's literally why you look at this through the lens of percentages. But it doesn't paint the narrative you want it to paint, so of course you're going to play dumb.

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Every % of growth for us was harder than anyone else,

And we still almost kept pace with the world, given that difficulty.

It's amazing

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20% off is not "almost kept pace".

I cannot figure out if you are an idiot or you just think everyone else is.

In the last ten years, my small business has grown by over 1,000%. Sounds impressive until you realize that my starting point was pretty frigging low.

A lot of the countries you listed started low, so of course their numbers are easier to pop off the page when you give certain stats.

This reminds me of people who bashed Kansas after the tax cuts saying that their employment rate didn't rise as fast as everyone else, or even their neighboring states. Well, yeah, they had high employment already...higher than the national average and higher than their neighboring states.

This is NOT to say America is doing fantastic. Government and cronies have thrown all kinds of sand in the gears of progress. Just pointing out how insanely misleading stats can be.

God forbid developing nations catch up