The United States can have hope in the New Year because America’s exceptional economy promises a bright future.
Alexis de Tocqueville, the French philosopher who visited America in the early 19th century and published books on his observations, was the first to refer to America’s economy as exceptional. “This state of things is without a parallel in the history of the world,” he wrote. “In America everyone finds facilities unknown elsewhere for making or increasing his fortune.”
Around the time when Tocqueville was writing, England’s per-capita gross domestic product was 50% higher than that of America, according to a 2014 study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). But by the early 20th century the U.S. had caught up. Since World War II, the U.S. has maintained about a 30% advantage over the U.K. There is no other G-7 country that comes close to the U.S. Most are about 70% as rich on a per-capita basis.
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