GDP, believe it or not, is an indicator of a nation’s progress in discipleship.
I enjoy reading Mindy Belz’s daily global news update called “Globe Trot” at World Magazine online. In a recent post she provided a link to a Minneapolis Star Tribune article by Adam Belz that compared the relationship of the GDP of the United States to that of other nations in the world. The GDP – Gross Domestic Product – represents the market value of all officially recognized final goods and services produced within a country during a year.
Adam’s article describes the economic contribution the US makes to the world by comparing the GDP of individual states to the GDP of the nations of the world. He developed the graphic below to picture this comparison. Adam’s map pairs states in the US with countries of similar GDP … Russia and California, for example.
Adam references similar maps developed by others who have reflected on the United States as a global powerhouse.
It is striking to think of the capacity of free people to create wealth. When you consider how many people live in a country versus how many live in the corresponding state, the potential of the world’s people to create wealth is staggering. Unleashed, it could erase poverty.
For instance the six million people in Missouri produce approximately the same GDP as the 174.5 million people of Nigeria. Consider the natural and human resources in Nigeria. What if the people of Nigeria had the metaphysical capital of a biblical worldview and the corresponding free markets, property rights, and rule of law that have been the hallmark of the United States? What would be the condition of the Nigerian people? What contribution would they be making to the world?
Go here to read a great treatment by Armstrong Williams of Nigeria’s “limitless promise and potential.”
– Darrow Miller
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