[texhax] Re: European vs US standards (was: Hello - I have a problem)

[W.J. Metzger]

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004, Sebastian Luque wrote:
 
> I usually ignore these off-topic posts so that posts rapidly come back to the
> main interest of Lists' readers. But I cannot avoid adding my comment on
> Randolph Herber's messages on this thread. They are so plagued with egotistic
> views that ignoring them would contribute to perpetuate this sort of
> attitudes.
 
So do I, but...
>
> Where in the world did Mr. Herber get his idea that the U.S.A. is a major
> portion of the world's economy? Having lots of money may mean large economic
> power, but in no sense can it mean BEING a large portion of the world's
> economy. Perhaps Mr. Herber forgot that people, not money, are the main
> component of the world's economy. That is why it will be extremely more
> difficult to default more than 6 billion people to adhere to standards used
> by less than 300 million, won't it?  But then again, economic extorsion
> (which may be what Mr. Herber was referring to above) may go a long way in
> this sense.
 
Even economically, the U.S.A., while big, is a minority.  From the
CIA factbook  http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/
  Gross World Product:           $51.4 trillion
  U.S.A. Gross Domestic Product: $11.0 trillion
 
Cheers, Wes
 
--
Dr. W. J. Metzger            Experimental High Energy Physics Group
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