US is World's Most Competitive Economy for First Time in a Decade (wsj.com)

schwit1 shares a report: The U.S. is back on top as the most competitive country in the world, regaining the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2008 in an index produced by the World Economic Forum [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; alternative source], which said the country could still do better on social issues. America climbed one place in the rankings of 140 countries, with the top five rounded out by Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. All five countries' scores rose from 2017, with the U.S. notching the second-biggest gain after Japan's. [...] The Global Competitiveness Report this year assessed 140 countries on 98 indicators that measure business investment and productivity. The indicators are organized into 12 main drivers of productivity including the nations' institutions, tech savvy, infrastructure, education systems, market size and innovation.

Comments

Meaningless

[nukenerd]

Sounds like another of those bullshit evaluations in which you can make the order come out how you like depending what weight you attach to the measured parameters - even assuming they are measured correctly (or guessed) in the first place. For example, FTFA :

This year the WEF changed its methodology to better account for ... [blah blah, blah .....]

No sense of irony whatever...

[Archtech]

From the first article:

"The last time the U.S. topped the list was 2008".

I rest my case.

Re:Soooooooo

[guruevi]

Everybody is better off. Yes, the divide between the rich and poor is growing bigger, but all the US "poor" are pretty much nearing the middle class as far as the global economy is concerned. The poor are rich, they're just comparatively less rich than the very rich.

Pointing out the divide between rich and poor in the US is not about inequality or living in squalor conditions but about jealousy.

Re:We beat a country the size of California

[lgw]

Without the 16th amendment, any income tax must be sent to the states, proportional to population. (Same reason there's no federal sales tax today).

Corruption of the Senate seems perfectly optimized for the current system. Flipping back to appointment by the states would confuse all the lobbyists for a while, and give us many years until we come full cycle. Plus all those lobbyists would have to actually (gasp!) visit flyover red states in order to bribe all the state governments. Do them good to get out of DC once in a while. Of course, in another few decades we'd want to flip it again.

An amendment takes 3/4 of the states. That means the left coast can be entirely ignored. According to the documentary Demolition Man, we'll be amending the Constitution soon enough to allow Schwarzenegger to become president. I figure it's a twofer.