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I read a lot of history, and when I scan the national rankings of GDP, two nations jump out to me –#3 Japan and #4 Germany. They’ve been ranked near the top of national financial measures for almost half a century. This is especially amazing since neither is at the top of population or size, or especially in the case of Japan, natural resources. But an even bigger reason it’s so improbable is that both nations were in total shambles after World War II. Historians always credit the Marshall Plan for the recovery, but was that really the reason? America aided many countries devasted by the war, and they had far less to rebuild than Germany and Japan. Why did they not only recover quickly but far surpass almost every other nation on Earth? Certainly the hard-working cultures had something to do with it, but maybe we should consider another big factor–the governments were wiped clean and rebuilt from scratch. In other words, they weren’t infested with career politicians, lobbyists, bloated bureaucracies, and corruption infrastructures. They weren’t subjected to price controls, stifling regulations, mafia-run unions, and other drags on the economy. Meanwhile, the former most powerful nations of France, Britain, Canada, and India languished as socialist ideas spread through them.
Of course, Japan and Germany have been dropping recently as enough time as gone by that they’re falling victim to the same issues that have dragged on the rest of the West. I’d love to be able to wipe the slate clean of the current American government, but since that’s probably not realistic, maybe the next best thing right now is Term Limits.
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