The United States no longer has the most competitive economy in the world, according to annual rankings compiled by the Switzerland-based business school IMD.
To determine the results, the study incorporated 235 indicators from each of the ranked 63 economies, taking into account statistics like unemployment, GDP and government spending on health and education, as well as issues like social cohesion, corruption and globalization.
The Asia-Pacific region emerged as a contender for competitiveness, with 11 out of 14 economies either improving or holding their ground, led by Hong Kong and Singapore. Indonesia leaped 11 spots to 32nd – the biggest improvement in the region, thanks to increased more efficiency in the government sector and improved infrastructure.
Of-course, what the mainstream media will always leave out is the problem with the ever-increasing amount of insolvent debts, whether national debt or governmental debt. You cannot create a whole economy based on endless debt, and rely on more and more debt to keep the whole system afloat forever. That is considered, by most educated economists, to be failed third world economic ponzi schemes and has never ended well for any nation on planet Earth who has adopted this third world policy! Perhaps one day Americans will finally point their fingers at the real problem? The corrupt insolvent ever-growing government and the central banking system? Only time will tell.
Faced with crushing student loans and little ability to repay them, some Americans have taken to fleeing the country in order to escape their debt, according to CNBC's Annie Nova.
"It’s kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, does it really exist?" said 29-year-old Chad Haag, who relocated from Colorado to a jungle in India to avoid paying his $20,000 loan balance. "I've put America behind me," said Haag - 9,000 miles away from home.
Today he lives in a concrete house in the village of Uchakkada for $50 a month. His backyard is filled with coconut trees and chickens. “I saw four elephants just yesterday,” he said, adding that he hopes never to set foot in a Walmart again. - CNBC
That said, it hasn't all been smooth sailing - including finding acceptable loos to poo in. "Some toilets here are holes in the ground you squat over," said Hagg, who added that he recently ate spoiled goat meat at a local restaurant, landing him in the emergency room. Still, he insists "I have a higher standard of living in a Third World country than I would in America, because of my student loans."
