Export, Import Game - The Gold Medal Goes To...

I know the suspense is killing you, so I’ll tell you up front. The gold medal goes to Germany!

So what is a single girl to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon, why research international economic statistics. I spent the afternoon researching everything from national wealth, health care and quality of life and even the export/import ratios. And below I have list the export, import top three performers in 2008. I found in my research some very fascinating information. Ah those rascally Germans

Top 3 Exporters
Germany -$1.53 Trillion dollars 82 million people, per capita exports of around $18,650 USD
China -$1.465 Trillion Dollars 1.33 billion people, per-capita exports of only $1,100 USD
US-$1.377 Trillion Dollars 303 million people, capita exports of around $4,545USD

Top 3 Importers
US- $2.19 Trillion (American imports about 82 billion dollars MORE than we export)
Germany-$1.202 Trillion (German exports 33 billion dollars more then they import)
China -$1.156 Trillion (China exports 30 billion dollars more than they import)

I am not even going to mention that Germany (with a smaller population than the US and China) is out exporting us, the most notable statistic is the 33 billion dollar surplus for the Germans. On the flip side, with a bigger population, the US exports less, but imports more. In the export, import game with have an 82 billion dollar deficit. Curious, this figure might help our 10 trillion dollar deficit. We as a nation are over spending what we earn. And this I say to the many who want to blame the people with credit card debt for the problem with the economy. As an entire nation, we are importing more then we export.

I go back to the “Quality of Life” statistic on Health Care. 60% of Americans are dissatisfied with our current health care system. We top all other industrialized nation with the statistic. Germany was not on the list and I can only deduct Germans are happy with their health care system. But despite health care, what do the Germans get for their taxes; high standard, affordable (if not free) college education for all young people in Germany. This bodes well for the Germans as they will continue to advance in innovation, ingenuity well into the future, reaping more and more financial rewards. They get clean, safe reliable public transportation, although Germans love to speed along the Autobahn in fast moving Porsches and most notably, in a statistic that came out last year of the top 12 cities in the world to live, 4 of those cities were in Germany (non were in the United States). The best American city was Honolulu that ranked 25th. Curiously, Germany doesn’t rank as high in wealth, but ranks much higher in standard of living.

The moral of this story and the reason for the research is to demonstrate the difference of Cultural Values. We in the United States place more value on individual wealth and materialism, than we do for our infant mortality rate. Let me put this bluntly to make my point. Many in this country care more for making money then we do for infant mortality. But the even greater ironic twist is the Germans have at least the same if not more consumer spending power than Americans. After all their taxes, they have more disposable cash in their pockets and do not have to stress about the health care of their family, their children’s education or even walking down the street. The moral is for us Americans to decide what do we value; personal wealth or each other? It is now a chance for us to truly define our national identity.