Here are some numbers to meditate on:
So I just researched some statistics and crunched some numbers to calculate where the United States of America stands in the world, and I think it's still safe to say that overall America is the #1 most powerful and influential nation on Earth.
The numbers come from a variety of socioeconomic, geographic, demographic, and military figures, calculating our human development, wealth, size, and military might.
#1:
America is the richest nation on earth, she has the #1 highest Nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) coming in @ $18,570,000,000,000.00 per year.
America is the single most militarily advanced nation on earth, with the #1 largest annual defense budget weighing in @ $611,200,000,000.00.
(#2 Nominal GDP goes to China with $11,218,000,000,000.00. #2 Military Expenditure again goes to China on our heels @ $215,000,000,000.00.)
#2:
America has the #2 GDP by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) at a whopping $19,417,000,000,000.00
America has the #2 largest arsenal of Nuclear weapons, with a total of 6,800 overall, and 1,800 being active and ready for war.
(#1 GDP (PPP) goes to China @ $23,194,000,000,000.00. #1 largest Nuclear arsenal goes to Russia with 7,000 overall and 1,910 active nuclear weapons.)
#3:
America has the 3rd largest active Military force with 1,347,000 persons, with tens of millions more both in Reserves and/or fit for duty.
America has the 3rd largest total human population of any nation on Earth with approximately 325,300,000 people.
(#1 largest active Military goes to China with a standing Armed Forces consisting of 2,183,000 souls. #1 largest population also goes to China with a mind bending population of 1,383,000,000 people.)
#4:
America is the 4th largest nation in the world by total area with about 3,702,000 square miles.
(#1 largest country is no contest and goes to Russia, spanning an incredible 6,601,000 square miles - Canada comes in #2 at just over half that size @ 3,855,000 sq mi - and China nearly as large and barely beating the USA @ 3,705,000 sq mi.)
#7:
America is the 7th richest nation on earth according to our per capita nominal GDP of $57,000.00
(#1 richest by per capita nominal GDP goes to Luxembourg @ $103,000.00.)
#10:
America is the 10th richest nation on earth according to our per capita GDP (PPP) of $56,000.00
America is the 10th most highly developed nation on earth going by the Human Development Index with a number of 0.920
(#1 richest nation by per capita GDP (PPP) is Qatar with $141,000.00. #1 most highly developed is Norway at a nearly perfect 0.949.)
(HDI and IHDI numbers range from 1.000 - 100% perfectly developed - to 0.000 - 100% [im]perfectly undeveloped.)
#19
America is the 19th most developed nation when accounting for income inequality by our IHDI number of 0.796.
(#1 nation for IHDI is again Norway at 0.898.)
Judging by these statistics, the #1 issue facing Americas standing as the world leader is income inequality. If our massive wealth was more fairly distributed amongst our population, our IHDI and HDI ratings would significantly improve. Arguably, a more egalitarian distribution of wealth would also drive up our rankings in per capita GDP from #7/10 possibly into the top 5 or even top 3.
Another disturbing trend to note in these numbers is China.
Whereas America currently ranks #1 in only two of these areas - nominal GDP and military spending - China ranks #1 in three areas - standing military, population, and GDP by PPP - and it's not too much of a strech to see China growing it's current nominal GDP from 11.218 trillion to surpass Americas 18.569 trillion, or increasing its military spending from 215.7 billion to beat Americas 611.2 billion. If China overcame America in these two areas, it would seem that China would then become the worlds leading superpower, lagging behind only in the size of its nuclear arsenal of 270 total weapons.
Again, to insure American dominance in the world over the next few decades, it's essential that we solve our growing income inequality issues. Expanding income inequality combined with rising inflation and cost of living will result in a stagnant economy and reduced GDP, thereby basically insuring China surpasses the US as the dominant Global Power.
