How can America be the richest country in the world when it's so much in debt? Steve Jobs does not represent society, he represents 1%. to use someone like that as an example of your nations wealth would be like for someone to whip out his horses penis and show to his girlfriend what he could do - it's not a smart example. And your example of GDP being 3 times biger then the next nations is like a cashier working at a super market braging about how thousands of dollars go thru her hands every day: the bottom line is what the official government of the nation's bank account says.
On a national scale, you would likely look at its resources, quality of people and value of current assets. Americas combined worth is said to be around 70 trillion dollars.
Politicians gettin' richer whilst voters get poorer... Growing wealth widens distance between lawmakers and constituents 5 Dec.`11 - Wealth gap grows between Capitol Hill, constituents See also: Pelosi Spends Christmas at Posh Hawaiian Hotel December 27, 2011 | House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was not dreaming of a white Christmas.
It's also how many other countries you can beat up at the same time and take their stuff. I don't know why people don't talk about that.
Because it's debt is denominated in it's own currency as in the reason they are in debt is because they created the currency and the people they owe had money because the Govt was in debt. China doesn't grow USD on trees and lend us money so we can pay our bills. We have a made up currency that we alone can produce. Greece, Italy, and the European countries in a debt crisis are currency users not currency issuers. If they owe $1 million in Euro they have to have $1 million in Euro. They are basically like states. As for wealth, America is by far the wealthiest country in the history of mankind!
