<story><title>Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?</title><url>https://www.economist.com/interactive/britain/2023/03/09/why-did-250000-britons-die-sooner-than-expected</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>epicureanideal</author><text>Taiwan, South Korea, and Israel all have much lower populations than the UK and yet remain important global influencers.&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t all about population.  The USA has 1&amp;#x2F;4 the population of China and yet technologically is a peer competitor.  Japan had less than 1&amp;#x2F;2 the population of the USA in the 1980s and was a technological peer competitor.&lt;p&gt;With wise investment in capital equipment, education, and technology, even small, resource-poor countries can punch far above their weight.  The UK remains a sufficient economy to serve as a foundation to rise significantly above its current situation.  Imagine a UK with a $150,000 USD average income, thanks to intensive investment for a generation.  If that sounds unrealistic, so would our current level of average incomes to people living in 1900.  Somehow we&amp;#x27;ve just lost the belief that we can continue to dramatically increase our quality of life.&lt;p&gt;Between its nuclear deterrent and soft power, the UK could remain a global power for at least the next couple of centuries if it chose to do so.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what the electoral interest would be in a UK political party that advocated the goal of doubling the nation&amp;#x27;s per capita income in 10 years?</text></item><item><author>actuator</author><text>I am not sure how in a totally integrated free market world, a country like UK can compete with US or China. The amount of funding US can put into new areas like green energy and the internal market and capital it offers is something UK can&amp;#x27;t compete with. This is why UK origin founders are one of the biggest cohort of immigrant unicorn founders in US.&lt;p&gt;Although, I am not sure where a Brit would move to, if they want to have similar social systems. Most of the EU also seems on the path to decline as well.&lt;p&gt;Also, unlike say a German or a French expat, a British expat would have little problem moving to US, Canada, Australia or NZ as there is little language or culture barrier, so if those countries do well, why won&amp;#x27;t a skilled Brit just moved there.</text></item><item><author>krysp</author><text>As a Brit I can&amp;#x27;t help but notice that on every axis, our country appears to be in decline at the moment. Even before Brexit, things hadn&amp;#x27;t been going well, as this article shows. It&amp;#x27;s making me seriously consider moving away.&lt;p&gt;I want to have hope that as a country we can turn around this societal regression, but I fear it&amp;#x27;s a deeper problem than just the current government. The class system and an unhealthy nostalgia for when we were more important in the world seem to be holding us back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>somewhereoutth</author><text>To be honest it &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; all about population. Industrial&amp;#x2F;technological first mover advantage has now gone really. You need the concentration of talent that only drawing from a very large pool can achieve. US, EU, China are the 3 poles at the moment - with Africa and South America as potential for the future if they can get their governance sorted out.&lt;p&gt;The UK stopped being a global power after Suez - not for nothing is Brexit known as &amp;#x27;Suez for slow learners&amp;#x27;</text></comment>
<story><title>Why did 250k Britons die sooner than expected?</title><url>https://www.economist.com/interactive/britain/2023/03/09/why-did-250000-britons-die-sooner-than-expected</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>epicureanideal</author><text>Taiwan, South Korea, and Israel all have much lower populations than the UK and yet remain important global influencers.&lt;p&gt;It isn&amp;#x27;t all about population.  The USA has 1&amp;#x2F;4 the population of China and yet technologically is a peer competitor.  Japan had less than 1&amp;#x2F;2 the population of the USA in the 1980s and was a technological peer competitor.&lt;p&gt;With wise investment in capital equipment, education, and technology, even small, resource-poor countries can punch far above their weight.  The UK remains a sufficient economy to serve as a foundation to rise significantly above its current situation.  Imagine a UK with a $150,000 USD average income, thanks to intensive investment for a generation.  If that sounds unrealistic, so would our current level of average incomes to people living in 1900.  Somehow we&amp;#x27;ve just lost the belief that we can continue to dramatically increase our quality of life.&lt;p&gt;Between its nuclear deterrent and soft power, the UK could remain a global power for at least the next couple of centuries if it chose to do so.&lt;p&gt;I wonder what the electoral interest would be in a UK political party that advocated the goal of doubling the nation&amp;#x27;s per capita income in 10 years?</text></item><item><author>actuator</author><text>I am not sure how in a totally integrated free market world, a country like UK can compete with US or China. The amount of funding US can put into new areas like green energy and the internal market and capital it offers is something UK can&amp;#x27;t compete with. This is why UK origin founders are one of the biggest cohort of immigrant unicorn founders in US.&lt;p&gt;Although, I am not sure where a Brit would move to, if they want to have similar social systems. Most of the EU also seems on the path to decline as well.&lt;p&gt;Also, unlike say a German or a French expat, a British expat would have little problem moving to US, Canada, Australia or NZ as there is little language or culture barrier, so if those countries do well, why won&amp;#x27;t a skilled Brit just moved there.</text></item><item><author>krysp</author><text>As a Brit I can&amp;#x27;t help but notice that on every axis, our country appears to be in decline at the moment. Even before Brexit, things hadn&amp;#x27;t been going well, as this article shows. It&amp;#x27;s making me seriously consider moving away.&lt;p&gt;I want to have hope that as a country we can turn around this societal regression, but I fear it&amp;#x27;s a deeper problem than just the current government. The class system and an unhealthy nostalgia for when we were more important in the world seem to be holding us back.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>notahacker</author><text>&amp;gt; I wonder what the electoral interest would be in a UK political party that advocated the goal of doubling the nation&amp;#x27;s per capita income in 10 years?&lt;p&gt;Probably about the same as the electoral interest in a party that promised everyone a perpetual motion machine, which would be about as capable of achieving its promises. (The recent UK electoral record of promises you&amp;#x27;d have to be utterly delusional to believe isn&amp;#x27;t bad actually, just helps to have a lot of backing from the status quo!)&lt;p&gt;The UK already has more global influence than Taiwan, South Korea and Israel and massively outsize influence for a country making up less than 1% of global population and an even smaller fraction of its land physical resources, it&amp;#x27;s just this global influence isn&amp;#x27;t guaranteed to be used wisely, never mind benefit the lifespan of the average citizen.</text></comment>