I'd vote America as the top country currently.
Who is going to challenge the United States for global leadership? The Europeans? The Japanese? The Russians? The EU today has 12 percent unemployment – reaching 26 percent in Greece and Spain – almost zero economic growth, a declining population in many of its member states.
The Japanese are suffering from a declining and rapidly aging population, lack of immigration, a Nikkei Index that is still more than 20,000 points below the level of 1988 and debt that equals 240 percent of GNP. Not to mention a weak economic growth in a last two decades.
While Russia may have grabbed the headlines for hosing the forthcoming Olympics and Edward Snowden, it’s no super power. Russia has a trade profile of a Third World country, a GNP the size of Canada, which is less than 15 percent of the United States GDP, no soft power, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, Wall Street or highly rated universities.
What about China or India? While both have made great strides in the last several decades, they also suffer from serious problems. China has 650 million people in the often-impoverished countryside and a GDP/capita ($6,100) in 87th place in the world that is barely 12 percent of American GDP/capita. China suffers from massive official corruption, one party Communist rule, lack of creativity and grotesque social stratification. Its massive air, water and soil pollution problems kill 1.2 Chinese a year. It will likely be 2050, as its leaders often admit, before China becomes a thoroughly modern country.
As for India, 830 million people (almost 70 percent of the population) live in the largely poor countryside where over 160 million people have no access to water, electricity or sanitation. India leads the world with the greatest number of illiterate individuals – 35 percent of all women are illiterate. No less than 25 percent of the population has no electricity. India has a weak infrastructure, GDP/capita ($1,500) at 138th place in the world that is barely 3 percent of the American figure and massive corruption. Finally, its rapid population growth (180 million people added in the last decade) bodes poorly for its future.
Merica ftw
