Finland most competitive economy

DanishDynamite

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DanishDynamite
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The World Economic Forum has just released their annual Global Competitiveness Report.

WEF report

From the introduction:
The Global Competitiveness Report 2003-2004, released on 30 October, reveals that the five most competitive economies are Finland, USA, Sweden, Denmark and Taiwan. The five profiles are available on this site. The report is the key guide to the economic progress of 102 countries.
Click to expand...
Imagine that. Out of the top five, 2.5 are welfare states. However can this be possible?

[Edited to fix link. Thanks, Tony.]
 
DanishDynamite said:


Imagine that. Out of the top five, 2.5 are welfare states. However can this be possible?
Click to expand...

The link is broken.


But, HOW is that possible? I really dont know without knowing more about the countries in question.
 
Hopefully, the link has been fixed (to a degree). It now links to the WEF homepage. Go down a bit, and the title "Finland most competative economy" will appear.
 
I await shanek's twisting and turning to explain this impossibility with great enthusiasm. ;)
 
"I await shanek's twisting and turning to explain this impossibility with great enthusiasm"

I'm going out on a limb here, but I bet the response will include comments suggesting the authors of the report didn't measure the right things or measured them incorrectly or it doesn't matter because if they were big "L" countries they would fare much better, yada yada yada, been there done that, one trick pony, thanks for playing, have a nice day.
 
DanishDynamite said:
The World Economic Forum has just released their annual Global Competitiveness Report.

WEF report

From the introduction:
Imagine that. Out of the top five, 2.5 are welfare states. However can this be possible?

[Edited to fix link. Thanks, Tony.]
Click to expand...

Which country is .5?
:)
 
DavidJames said:
"I await shanek's twisting and turning to explain this impossibility with great enthusiasm"

I'm going out on a limb here, but I bet the response will include comments suggesting the authors of the report didn't measure the right things or measured them incorrectly or it doesn't matter because if they were big "L" countries they would fare much better, yada yada yada, been there done that, one trick pony, thanks for playing, have a nice day.
Click to expand...
I don't think that is much of limb. :)
 
Re: Re: Finland most competitive economy

Mike B. said:


Which country is .5?
:)
Click to expand...
Well, Finland. I know for a fact that Denmark, Sweden and Norway are welfare states, but I'm not too sure of the exact situation in Finland. If it is similar to the rest, then we've got 3 out of 5.
 
DanishDynamite said:
The World Economic Forum has just released their annual Global Competitiveness Report.

From the introduction:
Imagine that. Out of the top five, 2.5 are welfare states. However can this be possible?
Click to expand...

I'm skeptical of how they measure "competitiveness". The USA necessarily has a much bigger economy than Finland. However, for what follows, I'll stipulate that the study is valid.

Would the 0.5 be the United States? The USA is a welfare state, just much less centralized than the ones in Europe, and less comprehensive.

Add to that the fact that "socialism" is a dirty word to Republicans, despite the fact that the current administration has quietly increased social spending more than any since the 1930s.

Much of the yapping about free markets in the USA is mere posturing. I myself believe in free markets and free trade, so my rhetoric sounds very Republican at times. The difference is that I really mean it.

What this proves is that while socialism just plain doesn't work, semi-socialism semi-works.
 
Re: Re: Finland most competitive economy

Abdul Alhazred:
I'm skeptical of how they measure "competitiveness". The USA necessarily has a much bigger economy than Finland. However, for what follows, I'll stipulate that the study is valid.
Click to expand...
I've provided the link. It explains completely how they measure these things.
Would the 0.5 be the United States? The USA is a welfare state, just much less centralized than the ones in Europe, and less comprehensive.
Click to expand...
No. The 0.5 was Finland. The USA is not, by any stretch of my imagination, a welfare state.
Much of the yapping about free markets in the USA is mere posturing. I myself believe in free markets and free trade, so my rhetoric sounds very Republican at times. The difference is that I really mean it.
Click to expand...
If you really mean it, you are not a Republican, but a Libertarian.
What this proves is that while socialism just plain doesn't work, semi-socialism semi-works.
Click to expand...
Yes and no. It shows that some strong reigns on free-wheeling capitalism doesn't hurt.
 
DanishDynamite said:
The World Economic Forum has just released their annual Global Competitiveness Report.

WEF report

From the introduction:
Imagine that. Out of the top five, 2.5 are welfare states. However can this be possible?

[Edited to fix link. Thanks, Tony.]
Click to expand...

No, 4 out of 5 are welfare states.
 
DanishDynamite said:
I await shanek's twisting and turning to explain
this impossibility with great enthusiasm. ;)
Click to expand...
I'll help him out with a few quotes from this: Doug Henwood Talk
We think of this as the great land of upward mobility...

... we have the widest distribution of rich and poor in the developed world.
Yes, you're right. That most… many Americans, a very large majority of them
probably think of themselves as middle class.

Well, we work a lot. There's no question about that.

It's almost a straight shot upwards, about 45-degree angle.
It just keeps relentlessly rising. You know, certainly incomes
have gone up.

Right, yeah. So the, you know, average… we know that our
average incomes have been rising.

Well, we have very short vacations, maybe an average of two weeks
and there's no legal mandate to offer vacation. Well, I think it's the
Protestant work ethic. A lot of Americans, yeah, really are driven by
work.

The statistics say productivity is rising.
And we have a almost $11 trillion economy.

People like to hear about tax cuts and tax relief.
And the government is a big burden.
The government's the problem, you know.
Click to expand...
Selective quoting is so much fun! :D
 
Re: Re: Re: Finland most competitive economy

DanishDynamite said:
Abdul Alhazred:I've provided the link. It explains completely how they measure these things.
No. The 0.5 was Finland. The USA is not, by any stretch of my imagination, a welfare state.
Click to expand...
Compare to 19th century USA, not to Sweden.
If you really mean it, you are not a Republican, but a Libertarian.
Click to expand...
Make that small-l libertarian. I do not endorse the Libertarian Party of which I am an ex-member.

The point about Republicans is that they can sound very libertarian when it suits them. Probably not much reported in the non-US media, I'm guessing.
Yes and no. It shows that some strong reigns on free-wheeling capitalism doesn't hurt.
Click to expand...
How strong? We'll argue that one on some other thread eventually. ;)
 
What ever happened to Japan?

I recall in the 80s and early 90s, many were saying in the USA, "We need to be more like the Japanese."

What happened?

Maybe they should have said, "We need to be more like the Scandanavians."

;)
 
Re: Re: Finland most competitive economy

Abdul Alhazred said:


I'm skeptical of how they measure "competitiveness".
Click to expand...

Me too. So I did a bit of reading.

The global competitive index is made up of three components - technology, public institutions and macroeconomic environment.

The technology component is based mainly on hard data (patents per million of population, mobile phones/computers per 100 of population) and partly on responses to survey questions (e.g. What is your country's position in technology relative to world leaders?, Is there sufficient competition among ISP's in your country to ensure high quality, infrequent interruptions and low price?) In this component the US comes 1st, followed by Finland.

The public institutions component is based entirely on responses to survey questions (e.g. Is your government neutral among bidders when deciding among public contracts?, How commonly are bribes paid in connection with annual tax payments?) It is split into two elements - contracts and law and corruption.

Contracts and law appears to be intended as a measure of how easy it is to enforce contracts etc. In this area the US is ranked 17th, immediately behind Botswana - Finland was No 1. In corruption it is ranked 24th, behind the ranks of Spain, Malta and Chile - Denmark was no 1.

Finally, the macroeconomic component is based largely on hard data (inflation rate, country credit rating, government surplus/deficit) and partly on survey questions (e.g. Is your country going to be in recession next year?, How high is the public trust in the financial honesty of politicians?) The US comes 14th, Singapore was no 1. The US ranking is mainly due to its strong credit rating - without this it would have ranked much lower.

Having had some dealings with business in Spain in the past, I am immediately suspicious of any report that suggests corruption in Spain is lower than somewhere like Norway. I am also not entirely convinced that the legal system in Botswana is likely to be more business friendly than that of the US.

Some of the discrepancies in rankings based on survey and hard data are also surprising. For example in macroeconomic stablity, Norway ranks 1st on hard data and 64th on survey. Iceland on the other hand ranks 63rd on hard data and 1st on survey.
 
Mike B. said:
What ever happened to Japan?

I recall in the 80s and early 90s, many were saying in the USA, "We need to be more like the Japanese."

What happened?

Maybe they should have said, "We need to be more like the Scandanavians."

;)
Click to expand...

Well here I am in the USA, and since 1980 I've lived in a lot of places in the USA. New York City (where I grew up), Asheville (North Carolina), Albuquerque (New Mexico), Conway (Arkansas), Plattsburgh (New York, but way away from NYC).

Not to mention the many places I just visited.

I have never heard anyone anywhere say we had to be more like the Japanese.

Am I just out of it? Or travelling in the wrong circles?

What the Hell are you talking about!?
 
Re: Re: Re: Finland most competitive economy

Jaggy Bunnet said:


Me too. So I did a bit of reading.

The global competitive index is made up of three components - technology, public institutions and macroeconomic environment...
Click to expand...

Thank you.

I'm still skeptical, but I'll admit they aren't just pulling figures out of their anuses.
 
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