[lbo-talk] Once Upon a time

Yoshie Furuhashi critical.montages at gmail.com
Tue Aug 22 11:22:55 PDT 2006


On 8/22/06, Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu> wrote:
>
> The average GDP per capita (PPP US$) in high-income OECD countries is
> $30,181, according to the United Nations Development Program (cf.
> <http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_ESP.html>).
> Give each and every citizen and resident in the Middle East $30,181
> per year,
>
> [WS:] Actually, it is not that far from it
> http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/indicators.cfm?x=5&y=2&z=1
>
> For example, United Arab Emirates with per capita GDP $22,420 are ahead of
> Spain ($22,391), Israel ($20,033), Greece ($19,954), or Portugal($18,126) -
> yet do not strike me as a paragon of liberal thought. The feudal and
> autocratic Saudi Arabia ($13,226) is well above most Eastern European
> countries, not to mention the world average of $8,299.

How are income and wealth distributed among citizens and residents of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia? The US State Department says, "Only 15-20% of the total population of 4.041 million are U.A.E. citizens. The rest include significant numbers of other Arabs--Palestinians, Egyptians, Jordanians, Yemenis, Omanis--as well as many Iranians, Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Afghanis, Filipinos, and west Europeans" (at <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/5444.htm>); and "Saudi Arabia's 2004 population was estimated to be about 26.7 million, including about 7 million resident foreigners" (at <http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3584.htm>). Presumably, non-citizens aren't entitled to the same rights, privileges, and therefore claims to the nation's income and wealth as citizens.

In any case, the Gulf states -- artificial states that should never have been established to begin with and have no right to exist -- are in a category of their own.


> While we are at that, the not so liberal United States ($37,562) is well
> above the ultra liberal Netherlands ($29,371) or Denmark ($31,465) or Sweden
> ($26,750).

Above a certain threshold, rises in per capita income, I hypothesize, bring diminishing returns, and if inequality is as big as in the USA -- the US GINI index in 2004 = 45 (at <https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/us.html>) -- a high per capita income leaves large swathes of poverty and illiberalism*.

* Note that liberalism and democracy are not the same thing. IMHO, liberalism requires a certain level of living standard, whereas democracy doesn't. -- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>



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