More on the Monumental Economic Ignorance of Hilary Sanders Trump

Eli,

The always interesting Mark Perry compares US GDP per capita by state vs. European countries and Japan, Korea, Mexico and China.

As the chart demonstrates, most European countries (including Germany, Sweden, Ireland and Denmark) if they joined the US, would rank among the poorest one-third of US states on a per-capita GDP basis, and the UK, France, Japan and New Zealand would all rank among America’s very poorest states, below No. 47 West Virginia, and not too far above No. 50 Mississippi. Countries like Italy, S. Korea, Spain, Portugal and Greece would each rank below Mississippi as the poorest states in the country.

and

When The Donald tells us that Mexico is “beating us economically” and “laughing at us,” maybe we should remind him that Mexico and China, as US states, would both be far below our poorest state — Mississippi — by 51% and 62% respectively for GDP per capita; and Japan would be barely above our poorest state — Mississippi. Using GDP per capita as a measure of both economic output per person and of a country’s standard of living, America is winning quite handsomely. And one of the factors that contributes significantly to our standard of living, which is among the highest in the world and the highest in history, is the availability of cheap imported goods from countries like Mexico, Japan and China.

Last night Hilary and Bernie made loud arguments to lower our standard of living by rejecting free trade, calling for mandated wages, greater government control of the economy and my favorite, banning hydraulic fracturing (because energy prices should be higher?!?).

The most ironic aspect of their policies is is hurts the poor the most, the very group they claim to be trying to help. 

Bill