A Different Political View

For a minute let's look at the most powerful economies on earth. As it is my blog, and I am Canadian, I will make it a top-eleven list.

These are, (GDP)
1 USA $15.68 trillion
2 China $8.36 trillion
3 Japan $5.96 trillion
4 Germany $3.4 trillion
5 France $2.61 trillion
6 UK $2.44 trillion
7 Brazil $2,25 trillion
8 Russia $2.01 trillion
9 Italy $2.01 trillion
10 India $2.01 trillion
11 Canada $1.82 trillion

How does that work out on a per-capita basis? Of course, I am only talking about the countries on the list of economic big players.

1 Canada $52.218
2 USA $49,965
3 Japan $46,720
4 Germany $41,514
5 France $39,771
6 UK $38,514
7 Italy $33,048
8 Russia $14,037
9 Brazil $11,339
10 China $6,188
11 India $1,489

What these two tables tell us is interesting. The gross GDP list tells us who the big players seem to be, and the second tells us which ones are too poor to really present a powerful competitive threat to anybody else on the list.

For example, India makes the tally of economic giants only if the first list is considered. They have an impressive $2.01 trillion dollar GDP, but that only works out to $1,489 per person.

Should the number one country on list one (the USA) need to worry about the economic threat posed by India. I wouldn't think so. Should they worry about China as a competitor, or Brazil, or Russia?

These countries really don't fill the same kind of niche that the USA does, or that the USA wants to fill.

Who then, are the competitive economic super power?

Let's drop the poor nations off. This leaves;

1 USA
2 Japan
3 Germany
4 France
5 UK
6 Italy
7 Canada

The idea should be competition between these nations.

Right-wing people in North America (Canada and the USA) think the way to compete is to cut social programs. This is quite ridiculous.

All except the USA have universal health care, and by not having it has not allowed the USA to pull ahead.

Let's say one of these countries decides to ditch all social programs. For argument, let's make that country be Canada.

We would become a nation of unprotected workers, old people needing to work until they drop, no consumer protection, or environmental programs, or job security. It doesn't sound like a very pleasant place to live or to work. Countries without social programs do not exist on the top 7 list at all. They are all much, much farther down the list, and are relatively insignificant.

I took both of my lists from nationmaster.com, which gets all of their information from the CIA World Fact-book.

You can keep going down the list of top GDP countries, and match that with the list for GDP per capita. You will not find any country that is both significant overall, and on a per-person basis without strong social programs.

Perhaps both left and right-leaning people should adopt some sort of level-playing-field view of social programs.

Let's say one of those countries decides to give every citizen a summer home in the tropics, they should say to themselves, "this is out of line with what our competitors are doing, and will likely hurt us." A country resisting universal health care should also say, "this is out of line, and will hurt our people, and hurt our ability to compete as result."

Welfare? Same test. Giving the needy $1,000,000 a year is out of line and is too much, just as providing the poor with nothing is also out of line, and too little.

Don't Wanna Suck

You are not supposed to chase the rank. You should be training for its own sake. The rank doesn't matter.

This kind of thinking is inaccurate. Especially within the Gracie promotion system.

To go up a stripe, you must have put in 8 months of training, and attended at least 90 advanced classes, and received your instructor's OK.

Training 3 times a week will get your attendance tally filled up almost exactly when your 8 months is up. This is also the maximum that most people train in a week.

Interestingly, it almost never seems to work out that way. Viruses happen, as do minor injuries, and other time commitments. It is rare that anybody gets their quota filled up at the 8-month mark, and so they train on for 9 months, or 10, or a year.

This makes sense, as with all things being equal, a person who has attended 90 classes will have learned more than one who has only made it to, say, 77.

I like getting promoted on time; call me crazy.

To guarantee this as much as I can, I have kicked my program into a higher gear. My weekly goal includes the 3 advanced classes that we have at my home Training Centre. In addition, I have started visiting the city for an extra 2 classes at a neighbouring school.

Around the time that I would normally have hit the 90-class mark, I will have made it to something around 150.

Rank chasing? Maybe, but I'll also be better at Jiu-Jitsu than if I weren't doing it.

Especially as I won't just back off once I make it to the attendance goal, but will soldier on.

I find the very best form of training is found in private lessons. The Gracie's recognize this, and count them as double towards attendance totals.

I also want a private lesson in my weekly tally, and it looks like this will become possible on a regular basis soon. That means that my weekly tally will become 7, instead of a normal full load of 3.

I will complete my quota in under half the time of a regular, good student. By the time a 3-class-a-week person reaches the mandated 90, I will be at 210.

If I were really chasing rank, wouldn't I stop at 90, or at least slow down?

The entire rank-slash-quota-slash-tally thing is supposed to be a motivator, and it does help. The real result is more training. More training equals better progress. Attaining rank quickly means you've met or exceeded the minimum requirements. Not doing so indicates that you haven't met the minimum standard. I intend exceeding the standard greatly.

My current 8-month period will end on July 29^th. My tally will have finished in May.

Actually, that's just the classes that count. I also attend 3 beginner classes per week to help out, and 2 open-mat free-training times, and meet up a time or two with friends for extra work. In reality, my weeks hold more than 12 sessions each. My “real” tally in 8 months is more like 360. Clearly, this isn't just about chasing the rank.

So why do I do it?

I just don't want to suck.