Inspired by Canada’s attempt to integrate into the European Union, here is a non-exhaustive (and highly correlated) list of advantages that Americans have benefited from, been subsidized by, or captured rents from over the last 100 years:
- Immigration
- The world’s largest free trade zone (50 states, 3.8 million square miles, 116m-350m people)
- Friendly neighbors
- Two coasts to transport goods from
- Serving as the world’s reserve currency
- The lowest perceived probability of defaulting on it’s national debt
- The absence of historic or prospective hyperinflation
- Possessing nuclear weapons that can both credibly be used and, more importantly, not used (NB: I’m not excited about this one, but I at least can’t rule out that it has deterred antagonistic military action)
- The world’s most prestigious higher education institutions
- Relatively high levels of interpersonal trust
I have no doubt that there is many, many more. I just wonder which of these we will still be intact in 10 years. Are they all still intact now?
Addendum: This is not meant to be a list of simply good policy choices. Those are, in actuality, far easier to achieve. Rather, this is a list of phystical and societal attributes that either simply have to exist or take a significant amount of coordination across time and, more difficult still, generations, to achieve.