RSS FeedDoes Government Health Spending Hurt the Economy?
The short answer is no (this is even more apparent if you look at the logarithmic scale on Gap Minder). In fact, high government spending on health care per capita (purchasing power parity adjusted) is strongly correlated with high gross domestic product per capita (purchasing power parity adjusted). The nature of this relationship is open to debate (is the country rich because it has government health care or does it have government health care because it is rich?), but the argument that high government healthcare spending lowers gross domestic product is betrayed by the data. The main outliers, incidentally, are mostly oil-producing nations (Qatar, Brunei, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia), as well as Singapore.
Confessions of an Obamaniac in Canada
Obamania… Mania.. in the House
With the U.S. presidential elections only days away now, it seems we might just have a president that is more popular abroad than he is at home for the first time in many years.
The French are ecstatic, and have high hopes of reverting back to their name for fried shreds of potato.
Other Europeans offer more succinct explanations. Simon Heffer of the Daily Telegraph says,
Many Britons will feel it would be rather nice to have a vote, too. Well, maybe not a whole vote: I would settle for one worth 50 per cent of those cast by American citizens.
Canada is no exception, with “Obamania” sweeping the country. Some Canadian commentators attribute this to an anti-Bush sentiment – frustration with unilateralism and naked self-interests at the rest of the world’s expense.
But Thomas Walkom offers a word of caution,
Which U.S. presidential candidate talks of expanding the war on terror by attacking more countries? If you answered John McCain, you’re wrong. The correct response, of course, is Barack Obama.
