Economic Facts About:

1. United States (Capitalist):

● The US is on the verge of its longest economic expansion on record.
● The US just hit a record 13 straight years without 3% real GDP growth.
● The decade-long expansion has generated 20 million jobs.
● Sleep deprivation costs the US economy billions of dollars.
● About $100,000 separates the middle class from the upper class.
● Generation Z might spend as much as $143 billion next year.
● If California were a country, it would have the fifth highest GDP in the world.
● The US spends more on defense than the next seven nations combined.
● The US national debt is at an all-time high.
● The sports industry is worth nearly $75 billion.
2. Japan (Capitalist):
● Japan’s economy currently ranks third worldwide
● Japan is an exporting giant
● They have slow economic growth
● A population pyramid meaning 27% of pop. is 65+.
● Nuclear reactors at one point powered 30% of the country. It then
went to 0% after the Fukushima nuclear disaster and now they are
back up and running since 2015.
● They import 3.4 million barrels of oil a day
● Their Abenomics economic reform aims to increase the Gross Domestic
Product by 20% or 600 trillion Yen by the year of 2020.
3. Cuba (Communist):
● Cuba receives almost 100,000 barrels of oil from Venezuela a day.
● The aggregated gross national income per capita of Cuba is officially
$5,539, but the take home salary for most Cubans is $20 a month.
● Less than 5% of Cubans have access to the internet.
● The Cuban gov authorizes only 201 dif categories for self employment.
● New Cuban hotspots can process 1 Mbps far below the US avg speed.
● Cuban dependency ratio is increasing year after year.
● 90% of Cubans own their own homes.
● Cubas economic growth has slowed dramatically in the past few years.
4. North Korea (Communist):
● More than 40% of North Koreans are undernourished.
● Virtually nobody uses the internet in North Korea.
● There could be trillions of dollars of minerals underground in NK.
● State run and underground economy. (Two prices for everything.)
● Nobody knows how large NKs economy is but it is small.
● Services make up the largest proportion of the economy.
● The drug trade is excessive there.
● Kim Jong Un wants to fix the economy.
5. Venezuela (Socialist):
● Inflation in Venezuela may hit 10 mil % this year.
● They have the largest oil reserves. Although production has decreased.
● Venezuela used to be the wealthiest country in South America.
● Pres Maduro has ordered 26 minimum wage increases in his 6 years.
● Venezuela’s 2018 GDP was smaller than that of Connecticut’s.
● Venezuela’s unemployment rate is at 44% (8.37%? macrotrends.com)
● Since 2017, oil has accounted for 95% of export earnings.
6. China
● China imports more US agricultural products than Canada and Mexico.
● China is home to a retailer bigger than Walmart and Amazon (Alibaba)
● China has the second-largest number of billionaires, after the US.
● The richest man in China is only the 21st in the world.
● Chinese consumers spend $73 billion on luxury goods each year.
● China's export economy grew 954% between 1970 and 2010.
● Average household income in China has increased by over 400% in 10 years.
● With a much bigger population, China has fewer poor people than the US.
Graphs
1. GDP per capita:
 2. Inflation Rate:

3. Unemployment Rate:

Follow Up Questions

1. Which country is economically doing the best?

The United States is economically doing the best solely based on GDP. As it
outweighs the other 2 measures of Inflation and Unemployment.
2. Which country is economically doing the worst?
Venezuela is clearly economically doing the worst based on being #1 worst
rates in Inflation & Unemployment.
3. Economic forecast for each country:
● United States: the economy is expected to grow at a solid but
moderating pace in 2019 and 2020. The growth rate of real GDP is
predicted to be 2.3% in 2019 and 1.9% in 2020. The unemployment
rate is anticipated to remain below 4% through the end of 2020.
● Japan: The government expects capital spending to grow a robust
2.7% next fiscal year, compared to 1.9% in the previous assessment
in July. Public demand was seen adding 0.5 percentage point to GDP
growth in fiscal 2020, up from 0.2 percentage point seen previously.
 ● Cuba: The GDP in Cuba is forecast to amount to $105.7 billion in
2023. The real total GDP in Cuba is expected to grow by 1.23% in
2023.
● North Korea: GDP in North Korea is expected to reach 18.00 USD
Billion by the end of 2020, according to Trading Economics global
macro models and analyst’s expectations. In the long-term, the North
Korea GDP is projected to trend around 19.00 USD Billion in 2021,
according to our econometric models.
● Venezuela: The economy is seen contracting for a seventh year
running in 2020, albeit less severely. the Consensus projects the
economy contracting 10.4% in 2020, which is down 2 percentage
points from last month’s forecast. In 2021 the panel sees GDP falling
1.5%.
● China: The prediction for China in 2020 is unchanged from the World
Bank’s previous forecast in October, with the world’s second largest
economy set to decelerate from 6.1 percent in 2019.
4. What kind of system does China have?
The Communist Party of China calls China's system a “socialist consultative democracy”
Venezuela’s Socialism Article Questions
1. How did Venezuela’s economy collapse?
● Inequality grew extreme. A small elite class controlled everything
while the increasingly impoverished masses fumed.
● The country turned toward socialism in 1999.
● Chavez got China and Russia to loan Venezuela billions.
● But his government far overspent on welfare programs, and it fixed
prices for everything.
● It declared farmlands state property and then abandoned them.
● Made the nation dependent on selling its oil abroad.
● Maduro’s administration stopped publishing any reliable statistics,
including on economic growth and inflation.
● It accepted millions in bribes for construction projects and racked up
debts that it is still struggling to pay.
● Oil, the only commodity Venezuela had left began to plunge in value.
● With oil prices low and the government's cash dwindling, price controls
have become a huge problem.
● The state still subsidizes food far below normal prices to appease the poor.
● Maduro has printed money at breakneck speed, and the bolivar has
plunged in value, wiping out jobs and income.
 ● Essentially because they never developed stronger on their oil money
in terms of their country they watched everything topple over like
dominoes. In that mindset of socialism, they felt to just keep on going
and that small elite class got greedy. And the downfall of today is not
truly lead back to one source again it is just from dominoes toppling
over as nothing was ever getting better or at least better than things
were getting worse. I mean like the paying the bills thing vs
medication and food for the country again was lead by Chavez decision
on the loans.
2. Do I think Socialism can work?
I do not think Socialism works. My reasons behind this include slow
economic growth, less entrepreneurial opportunity and competition, and a
potential lack of motivation by individuals due to lesser rewards. There also
is their tendencies to develop too many layers of bureaucracy. Along with
socialists not understanding the benefits of capitalism. And lastly their
thoughts of central planners not being able to control such complex
economies.