Difference between revisions of "Essay: High income countries are rarely authoritarian countries in our technological age driven by innovation"

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{{Clear}}
  
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'''Question:''' Are there very positive aspects of [[Western Civilization]]? If so, what are they?
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'''The West:'''
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*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qovJZwIVr0 Why the West Won’t Collapse with Stephen Kotkin] (Stephen Kotkin is an American historian, academic, and author.)
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'''Western values:'''
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*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkTgBz9RYls Why the West Won]
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*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVD0xik-_FM Why Has the West Been So Successful?]
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*[https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/18/opinion/china-russia-putin.html China and Russia Are Giving Authoritarianism a Bad Name], April 18, 2022
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*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWz2deJZppE Why the West is Worth Saving - Konstantin Kisin]
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*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEszGtr8C896sZi2J3zfRw7YGfm8WCZgt The West: The Genius of Western Civilisation. A 6-part series]
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*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0cKuFfYnVw Why Western Civilization Needs Christianity]
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*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/white-supremacy-is-bad-western-culture-isnt/2018/06/06/e4569e8c-683d-11e8-a335-c4503d041eaf_story.html White supremacy is bad. Western culture isn’t.]
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*[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOxODW9vlVLQBM79-V5i4t3Lfi2DbYdHn The Foundations of Western Civilization]
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== Western missionaries and the good things that they helped create in the world. Also, Christianity and social stability ==
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[[Image:Stbasil.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Saint Basil|St. Basil]] of Caesarea founded the first hospital. Christian hospitals subsequently spread quickly throughout both the East and the West.<ref>[http://biblemesh.com/blog/the-christian-origins-of-hospitals/ The Christian origin of hospitals]</ref> See: [[Christianity and hospitals]] ]]
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''See also:'' [[Christianity and social stability]]
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The article ''The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries'' published in ''Christianity Today'' notes:
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{{Cquote|In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide...
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One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results.
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"I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important."
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Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it...
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Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.
 +
 +
In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary...
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 +
...at a conference presentation in 2002, Woodberry got a break. In the room sat Charles Harper Jr., then a vice president at the John Templeton Foundation, which was actively funding research on religion and social change. (Its grant recipients have included Christianity Today.) Three years later, Woodberry received half a million dollars from the foundation's Spiritual Capital Project, hired almost 50 research assistants, and set up a huge database project at the University of Texas, where he had taken a position in the sociology department. The team spent years amassing more statistical data and doing more historical analyses, further confirming his theory.
 +
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...Woodberry's historical and statistical work has finally captured glowing attention. A summation of his 14 years of research—published in 2012 in the American Political Science Review, the discipline's top journal—has won four major awards, including the prestigious Luebbert Article Award for best article in comparative politics. Its startling title: "The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy."
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...over a dozen studies have confirmed Woodberry's findings. The growing body of research is beginning to change the way scholars, aid workers, and economists think about democracy and development.<ref>Christianity Today, [https://archive.is/cDMnA The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries], January 8, 2014</ref>}}
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[[File:John Wesley.jpg|thumbnail|right|200px|[[John Wesley]] ]]
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David Beidel wrote in his article ''The Bloodless Revolution: What We Need to Learn from [[John Wesley]] and the [[Great Awakening]]''
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{{Cquote|In the 18th Century, most of Europe was on fire. Bloody civil wars and revolutions were decimating nation after nation. Unrestrained injustice, government and Church corruption, slave trade and the oppression of the poor created a powder keg for violence. Miraculously, Great Britain escaped the horrors of civil war and the brutal savagery that revolutionary anarchy engenders.
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Few ancient monarchies are still in place today. The mystery of the UK’s capacity to honor the old guard, while raising up a more democratic system without a revolution, is a sociological wonder. Many credit the Great Awakening, in particular the Methodist movement, launched by John Wesley, for this extraordinary and peaceful transition.
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[[Methodism]] unleashed an army of “little Christ’s” all over Europe. They cared for the poor, took in unwanted and abused children, fought unjust laws and labor conditions, visited prisoners, and battled against slavery; They joined hands with the Apostles and “turned the world upside down.” Eventually compassion became fashionable...
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America is in desperate need of a Christ-infused revolution of compassion. We are a land of churches, who are well positioned to hear and answer the cries of our struggling communities. If a critical mass of congregations committed themselves to radically sharing the Gospel and passionately serving under-resourced/at-risk communities, we will see peace powerfully rise in these times of trouble. This will also enable, as in the days of John Wesley, wise reformation to take place because the true Christian Church is theologically hardwired to bring about peaceful, meaningful change that benefits all. I have written much about this in my book, Samaria, The Great Omission, and treasure every opportunity to strategize with churches who have a heart to minister in this way.
 +
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Let us stand in the gap as cultural/community peacemakers and healers in this season of sorrow and division. May our magnificent obsession be Jesus, the everlasting, ever loving, rescuer of the oppressed and Father of all.<ref>''[https://tristatevoice.com/2020/08/04/the-bloodless-revolution-what-we-need-to-learn-from-john-wesley-and-the-great-awakening/ The Bloodless Revolution: What We Need to Learn from John Wesley and the Great Awakening] by David Beidel</ref>}}
  
 
== Asian Development Bank: The middle-income countries transition to high-income counties around the globe: Characteristics of graduation and slowdown ==
 
== Asian Development Bank: The middle-income countries transition to high-income counties around the globe: Characteristics of graduation and slowdown ==

Revision as of 18:54, May 12, 2024

Map of high income countries in 2024 (GNI per capita of $13,206 or more)[1]

Question: In today's economic environment, are high income countries rarely authoritarian countries?

The answer to this question is an unequivocal yes!

High income countries are rarely authoritarian countries

In 2024, with the exception of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates, which have lots of oil, no authoritarian regime is a high income country (See: High income countries in 2024 and World Bank high income countries).

Research indicates that in the long-term, non-authoritarian countries are more likely to experience greater economic growth. See: Under Authoritarian Rule and Economic Growth, CORI Working Paper No. 2007-02

Article that supports the thesis that authoritarian are rarely authoritarian countries:

Authoritarian regimes are less stable which hurts economic growth

There is research indicating that economies disrupted by political turmoil/unrest grow at an average rate 2 percentage points slower than those that are untroubled, with a persistent lag in the growth rate of 1 to 2 percentage points in the succeeding year.[2][3]

The abstract for the University of California, San Diego 2018 research paper Threats and Political Instability in Authoritarian Regimes: A Dynamic Theoretical Analysis:

“ Non-democracies are seen as inherently unstable because of the high frequency of irregular and often-violent leadership turnovers. Our tractable stochastic game model investigates authoritarian stability and instability by portraying a world in which dictators are forced to tolerate threatening lieutenants because they are skillful at overcoming existential threats (shocks) to the regime. This unavoidable choice allows lieutenants to build up their own power bases, planting the seeds of various forms of authoritarian instability, including purges, coups, and civil war. Our model predicts, first and foremost, that changes in the frequency and severity of exogenous threats can have a profound impact on political stability. Contrary to research on the trade off between competence and loyalty, our model shows that when threats to the regime are existential and purges are an option, the dictator will always prefer to employ a competent lieutenant. Also, surprisingly, even with minimal institutional guarantees, we find that authoritarian regimes can be quite stable if the dictator and the lieutenant need each other for their unique skills in the face of major challenges. However, in accordance with the existing literature, credible institutions to ensure the welfare of ousted officials do, indeed, reduce the chance of internal conflict.[4] ”

Why has the West been so successful?

See also: Why has the West been so successful?

In the above map, the Western World regions of the world are colored light blue.

There are countries in Asia that have adopted much of Western values such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines.

The above graphic comes from the video Why the West Won’t Collapse with Stephen Kotkin (Stephen Kotkin is an American historian, academic, and author.)

For more information, please see: Why has the West been so successful?

Question: Are there very positive aspects of Western Civilization? If so, what are they?

The West:

Western values:

Western missionaries and the good things that they helped create in the world. Also, Christianity and social stability

St. Basil of Caesarea founded the first hospital. Christian hospitals subsequently spread quickly throughout both the East and the West.[5] See: Christianity and hospitals

See also: Christianity and social stability

The article The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries published in Christianity Today notes:

“ In his fifth year of graduate school, Woodberry created a statistical model that could test the connection between missionary work and the health of nations. He and a few research assistants spent two years coding data and refining their methods. They hoped to compute the lasting effect of missionaries, on average, worldwide...

One morning, in a windowless, dusty computer lab lit by fluorescent bulbs, Woodberry ran the first big test. After he finished prepping the statistical program on his computer, he clicked "Enter" and then leaned forward to read the results.

"I was shocked," says Woodberry. "It was like an atomic bomb. The impact of missions on global democracy was huge. I kept adding variables to the model—factors that people had been studying and writing about for the past 40 years—and they all got wiped out. It was amazing. I knew, then, I was on to something really important."

Woodberry already had historical proof that missionaries had educated women and the poor, promoted widespread printing, led nationalist movements that empowered ordinary citizens, and fueled other key elements of democracy. Now the statistics were backing it up: Missionaries weren't just part of the picture. They were central to it...

Areas where Protestant missionaries had a significant presence in the past are on average more economically developed today, with comparatively better health, lower infant mortality, lower corruption, greater literacy, higher educational attainment (especially for women), and more robust membership in nongovernmental associations.

In short: Want a blossoming democracy today? The solution is simple—if you have a time machine: Send a 19th-century missionary...

...at a conference presentation in 2002, Woodberry got a break. In the room sat Charles Harper Jr., then a vice president at the John Templeton Foundation, which was actively funding research on religion and social change. (Its grant recipients have included Christianity Today.) Three years later, Woodberry received half a million dollars from the foundation's Spiritual Capital Project, hired almost 50 research assistants, and set up a huge database project at the University of Texas, where he had taken a position in the sociology department. The team spent years amassing more statistical data and doing more historical analyses, further confirming his theory.

...Woodberry's historical and statistical work has finally captured glowing attention. A summation of his 14 years of research—published in 2012 in the American Political Science Review, the discipline's top journal—has won four major awards, including the prestigious Luebbert Article Award for best article in comparative politics. Its startling title: "The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy."

...over a dozen studies have confirmed Woodberry's findings. The growing body of research is beginning to change the way scholars, aid workers, and economists think about democracy and development.[6]

”
John Wesley

David Beidel wrote in his article The Bloodless Revolution: What We Need to Learn from John Wesley and the Great Awakening

“ In the 18th Century, most of Europe was on fire. Bloody civil wars and revolutions were decimating nation after nation. Unrestrained injustice, government and Church corruption, slave trade and the oppression of the poor created a powder keg for violence. Miraculously, Great Britain escaped the horrors of civil war and the brutal savagery that revolutionary anarchy engenders.

Few ancient monarchies are still in place today. The mystery of the UK’s capacity to honor the old guard, while raising up a more democratic system without a revolution, is a sociological wonder. Many credit the Great Awakening, in particular the Methodist movement, launched by John Wesley, for this extraordinary and peaceful transition.

Methodism unleashed an army of “little Christ’s” all over Europe. They cared for the poor, took in unwanted and abused children, fought unjust laws and labor conditions, visited prisoners, and battled against slavery; They joined hands with the Apostles and “turned the world upside down.” Eventually compassion became fashionable...

America is in desperate need of a Christ-infused revolution of compassion. We are a land of churches, who are well positioned to hear and answer the cries of our struggling communities. If a critical mass of congregations committed themselves to radically sharing the Gospel and passionately serving under-resourced/at-risk communities, we will see peace powerfully rise in these times of trouble. This will also enable, as in the days of John Wesley, wise reformation to take place because the true Christian Church is theologically hardwired to bring about peaceful, meaningful change that benefits all. I have written much about this in my book, Samaria, The Great Omission, and treasure every opportunity to strategize with churches who have a heart to minister in this way.

Let us stand in the gap as cultural/community peacemakers and healers in this season of sorrow and division. May our magnificent obsession be Jesus, the everlasting, ever loving, rescuer of the oppressed and Father of all.[7]

”

Asian Development Bank: The middle-income countries transition to high-income counties around the globe: Characteristics of graduation and slowdown

See also: Middle-income countries

Many Latin American middle-income countries haven't become high-income countries and have half the labor productivity of countries that are technological leaders.[8][9]

See also: Middle-income trap

Middle-income countries is the term which the World Bank defines as: "economies with a gross national income (GNI) per capita between $1,136 and $13,845 as of 2024. MICs consist of lower-middle-income countries and upper-middle-income countries, both of which are part of the income categories that the World Bank uses to classify economies for operational and analytical purposes,"[10] as measured in U.S. dollars.

The Asian Development Bank is an institution established in 1966 with 31 offices in the world designed to promote social and economic development in Asia. The Bank is headquartered in Manilla, Philippines.

The abstract for the Asian Development Bank 2015 paper entitled The Middle-Income Transition around the Globe: Characteristics of Graduation and Slowdown indicates:

“ The paper investigates the situation of middle-income economies around the world. Since 1965, only 18 economies with a population of more than 3 million and not dependent on oil exports have made the transition to being high-income. Many more have not been able to move beyond the middle-income stage. We conduct statistical tests of differences between two groups of economies across a range of growth and development variables. The results suggest that middle-income economies are particularly weak in the following areas: governance, infrastructure, savings and investment, inequality, and quality—but not quantity—of education. The findings are used to suggest whether the People’s Republic of China is successfully progressing through the middle-income stage or whether it may get caught in a middle-income trap.[11] ”

Innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries

See also: Innovation

Below are articles on innovation and countries going from middle-income countries to high-income countries:

Middle-income trap

The middle-income country of China is endeavoring to become a high-income country.

See: Middle-income trap

See also: Middle-income trap and Innovation and Productivity

The middle-income trap refers to an economic situation where a middle-income country is failing to transform itself to a high-income economy due to its rising costs and declining competitiveness (Historically few countries successfully manage the transition from low to middle to high income).[12][13][14][15]

The Asia Society describes the middle-income trap thusly: "The “middle-income trap” is a theory of economic development in which wages in a country rise to the point that growth potential in export-driven low-skill manufacturing is exhausted before it attains the innovative capability needed to boost productivity and compete with developed countries in higher value-chain industries. Thus, there are few avenues for further growth — and wages stagnate."[16]

The 2023 Mint News article There is no easy escape from the middle-income trap indicates: "Graduating from middle income to developed world status is the greatest prize in development economics. Only a handful of East Asian and Central European countries have made the transition so far, along with a few fortunate resource-rich countries."[17]

Middle-income trap and various countries:

Global Innovation Index

See also: Global Innovation Index

The Global Innovation Index is an annual ranking of countries by their capacity for and success in innovation. It is published by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It was started in 2007 by Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) and World Business (a British magazine).

2023 Global Innovation Index rankings

Switzerland, Sweden, the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore are the world’s most innovative economies in 2023, according to WIPO’s Global Innovation Index (GII), as a group of middle-income economies have emerged over the past decade as the fastest climbers of the ranking.[18][19][20]
VisualCapitalist.com ranked the USA 3rd in innovation in 2023.[21]


Map of labor productivity in the world by country

See also: Labor productivity

According to the U.S. Labor Bureau of Statistics, labor productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of output with the amount of labor used to produce that output."[22]

Investopedia says about the importance of labor productivity to an economy, "Labor productivity is largely driven by investment in capital, technological progress, and human capital development. Labor productivity is directly linked to improved standards of living in the form of higher consumption. As an economy's labor productivity grows, it produces more goods and services for the same amount of relative work. This increase in output makes it possible to consume more of the goods and services for an increasingly reasonable price."[23]

According to Yahoo Finance: "Efficiency in production, also coined as productivity, is one of the major driving forces behind economic resilience in a country."[24]

Investopedia indicates: "Education tends to raise productivity and creativity, as well as stimulate entrepreneurship and technological breakthroughs. All of these factors lead to greater output and economic growth."[25]

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development states concerning labor productivity: "Labour productivity is a key precondition for high growth of output, employment and wages and central to long-term growth in living standards."[26]

In an economy, one of the causes of wage raises is an increase in marginal labor productivity rates.[27]


Investopedia says about the importance of labor productivity to an economy, "Labor productivity is largely driven by investment in capital, technological progress, and human capital development. Labor productivity is directly linked to improved standards of living in the form of higher consumption."[28]

According the Yahoo Finance: "According to Yahoo Finance: "Efficiency in production, also coined as productivity, is one of the major driving forces behind economic resilience in a country... The United States has one of the strongest economies in the world. The country hosts some of the largest companies in the world, which contributes to the high GDP per capita in the country."[29]

As can be seen in the map above, the USA has one of the highest labor productivity rates in the world.[30]

General international politics essays

The United States essays

The flag of the United States

China essays

The flag of China.

Russia essays

Vladimir Putin in a KGB uniform.

See also: Vladimir Putin is a corrupt kleptocrat and an authoritarian

References

  1. ↑ High income countries in 2024
  2. ↑ Institutions are catalysts for economic development and stability in Africa, The London School of Economics and Political Science website
  3. ↑ Coups Slow Economic Growth
  4. ↑ Threats and Political Instability in Authoritarian Regimes: A Dynamic Theoretical Analysis, University of California, San Diego 2018 research paper, 21st Century China Center Research Paper No. 2018-05
  5. ↑ The Christian origin of hospitals
  6. ↑ Christianity Today, The Surprising Discovery About Those Colonialist, Proselytizing Missionaries, January 8, 2014
  7. ↑ The Bloodless Revolution: What We Need to Learn from John Wesley and the Great Awakening by David Beidel
  8. ↑ Is economic growth in middle-income countries different from low-income countries? by Barry Eichengreen, Donghyun Park, and Kwanho Shin, Brookings Institute, September 25, 2017
  9. ↑ Is Southeast Asia falling into a Latin American style “middle-income trap”?, Cambridge Working Papers in Economics, CWPE 2267. Published 9 November 2022. Website www.econ.cam.ac.uk/cwpe
  10. ↑ Middle-Income Countries (MICs): Characteristics and Significance, Investopedia
  11. ↑ The Middle-Income Transition around the Globe: Characteristics of Graduation and Slowdown by Paul Vandenberg, Lilibeth Poot, and Jeffrey Miyamoto. Asian Development Bank. ADBI Working Paper Series. No. 519. March 2015
  12. ↑ Middle-Income Trap
  13. ↑ China May Be Running Out of Time To Escape the Middle-Income Trap, Asia Society, 2017
  14. ↑ Tracking the Middle-Income Trap: What is It, Who is in It, and Why? (Part 1), Asia Development Bank, 2012
  15. ↑ Tracking the Middle-Income Trap: What is It, Who is in It, and Why? (Part 2), Asia Development Bank, 2012
  16. ↑ China May Be Running Out of Time To Escape the Middle-Income Trap, Asia Society, 2017
  17. ↑ There is no easy escape from the middle-income trap, Mint News, 2023
  18. ↑ The U.S. Is (Again) Among the World's Top Innovators, U.S. News and World Report, 2023
  19. ↑ Global Innovation Index 2023: Switzerland, Sweden and the U.S. lead the Global Innovation Ranking; Innovation Robust but Startup Funding Increasingly Uncertain
  20. ↑ World's Most Innovative Countries, Statista website, 2023
  21. ↑ Ranked: The Most Innovative Countries in 2023
  22. ↑ Productivity 101, U.S. Labor Bureau of Statistics
  23. ↑ Labor Productivity: What It Is, How to Calculate & Improve It, Investopedia
  24. ↑ 25 Most Productive Countries Per Capita, Yahoo Finance
  25. ↑ How Education and Training Affect the Economy
  26. ↑ How does Russia compare?, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
  27. ↑ 30 Best Basic Economics Quotes With Image
  28. ↑ Labor Productivity: What It Is, How to Calculate & Improve It, Investopedia
  29. ↑ 25 Most Productive Countries Per Capita, Yahoo Finance
  30. ↑ Most Productive Countries 2024
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