Rules Abandoned

The United States has 34 crore people (the size of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar). Americans represent 4 per cent of the global population and they are the biggest beneficiaries of what the US called the rules-based order.

- Aakar Patel

This order, imposed by the US and its European allies after the Second World War, seeks global cooperation through institutions like the United Nations and also the World Trade Organisation. Americans refer to their president, unironically, as the ‘leader of the free world’. America’s per capita income is almost $90,000 according to the one of the institutions of the ‘rules-based order’, the International Monetary Fund. India’s per person income is less than 1/30th, at under $3000. The US economy has surged over the last few decades because its companies have sent their products — like planes, phones and computers — and services — like social media companies — around the world, where they dominate.

Even with the recent downward revision in their jobs numbers, the US is running at what is referred to as full employment, meaning that joblessness is around 4%, which is optimal. This means that from the standpoint of income and jobs, the US is in a very good place, particularly when compared to nations like India, where poverty and joblessness, particularly in the absence of regular, salaried employment, are a serious problem.