[quote]It is easy to learn the average income of a resident of El Salvador or Albania. But there is no systematic source of information on the average income of a Salvadoran or Albanian. In this new working paper, research fellow Michael Clemens and non-resident fellow Lant Pritchett create a new statistic: income per natural �?? the mean annual income of persons born in a given country, regardless of where that person now resides...Almost 43 million people live in a group of countries whose income per natural collectively is 50 percent higher than GDP per resident. For 1.1 billion people the difference exceeds 10 percent.[/quote]
The pointer is from Will Wilkinson, here is the paper itself ( http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/15552/ ). By the way, can you guess the country with the highest income per natural? It’s the United States (ahem), with Norway and Luxembourg close behind. Scroll to pp.34-35 of the paper for a full list. Bermuda does surprisingly well. Guyana has the biggest difference between income per capita and income per natural, at over 100%.[/i] (emphasis in original)
[quote]Beowolf wrote:
…Is this supposed to be mind blowing or something?
Who else would it possibly be?[/quote]
Actually, I think it surprises a lot of people who think that a lot of Western European countries would be higher.
Additionally, I’m going to quote a comment from the thread to you, because I’m lazy:
[i]This is much more than “a statement of the obvious,” because it highlights what is normally hidden.
Think of it this way, if a high-earning Salvadorian (for his country) leaves El Salvador, the income of El Salvador goes down. If this person moves to the United States and earn less than the average US resident (even while increasing his salary substantially from his Salvadorian level), the income of the United States goes down as well.
But if this person works in the U.S. and sends more to El Salvador in remittances than he would have made had he remained in El Salvador, both countries win.
With traditional statistics, it looks like both countries lose (because average wages in both countries dropped). In reality, El Salvador wins with more money and the U.S. wins with a good tax-paying worker who can and probably will climb the economic ladder.
It reminds me of the old quip (Will Rodgers?): when the Okies moved to California, it increased the average intelligence of both states.[/i]
[quote]BostonBarrister wrote:
Actually, I think it surprises a lot of people who think that a lot of Western European countries would be higher. [/quote]
Whom exactly do you think this bit would surprise? I’m sure it’s common knowledge and any vox pop anywhere in the world, would support that. The US and its inhabitants embody the money-driven crowd. Nobody beats you in consumption, and your wealthy classes have more money than Cresus.
Thought Luxembourg used to be ahead of us, maybe that’s changed. Let’s hope it’s still the case in another couple of years.
And one even bigger thing, having lived overseas for a couple of years, cost of living in the U.S. is very cheap compared to most First World nations I’ve been to (Japan and Britain, in particular, are absurd). However, seems like that low cost of living is based on a couple of big factors (illegal immigrant labor, factory farming) that are not desirable.