by Brian Maher
Daily Reckoning
American per capita GDP rose an average 2.2% a year between 1947 and 2000. But it’s only averaged 0.9% since 2001, says The New York Times.
1.3% doesn’t sound like much. And from one year to the next, it isn’t. But repeat it every year for 50 years and…
U.S. per capita GDP was about $45,000 at the turn of this century. But as the Times shows, if the economy grew an annual 0.9% between 1947 and 2000 instead of 2.2%, U.S. per capita GDP would have only been about $20,000 — 2.25 times less than it was.
Some countries with per capita GDP 2.25 times less than the U.S.: Greece… Kazakhstan… Latvia… Chile.