Small countries are more successful

[Rudel]

Lol. But I'd say those times France tried to do it in the past didn't really work.

And we shouldn't stop from trying. Impossible n'est pas français, après tout.

They've always seen Catalans as materialist people and are convinced that the only reason for wanting independence is the economical crisis. That's why they strongly believe that threats like these can make people change their minds.

I wouldn't be surprised if that discourse to justify Catalan independence via rational and materialist means was common on your side of things as well. I've seen it constantly for Scotland, for example.
And that's the same rationale liberals and regionalists use to justify balkanizing France.

[Comte Arnau]

I wouldn't be surprised if that discourse to justify Catalan independence via rational and materialist means was common on your side of things as well. I've seen it constantly for Scotland, for example.

They are, of course, because economy is important and because it's true that a part of the population feels this as a priority. But it'd be absurd to think it is the only thing that matters, let alone the real cause at the root of it all.

[Lucifer]

Both Flanders as Wallonia score lower than Belgium. Interesting.

u forgot about brussels

[Odin]

[sean]

HDI means nothing for rich countries. It's a metric invented by a Paki economist to measure undeveloped shitholes. Just notice how small differences are between richest countries. Few percents.

HDI is silly socialist stuff that countries who have large social welfare programs, small populations, and homogeneous societies use to feel relevant. At least in Canada, 80% of our federal taxes go to transfer payments lel.

Small landlocked countries tend to be poorer. Europe is an only exception in this regard. Not everyone is lucky to live in a densely populated and relatively small continent with a common market and well integrated infrastructure.

Even the most powerful places to live in the Renaissance were City states, the smaller, regionally devolved places with leaders from the cities they planned to live in.

Landlocked developing countries (LLDC) are developing countries that are landlocked.[1] The economic and other disadvantages experienced by such countries makes the majority of landlocked countries least developed countries (LDC), with inhabitants of these countries occupying the bottom billion tier of the world's population in terms of poverty.[2] Apart from Europe, there is not a single successful highly developed landlocked country as measured by the Human Development Index (HDI), and nine of the twelve countries with the lowest HDI scores are landlocked.[3][4] Landlocked European countries are exceptions in terms of development outcomes due to their close integration with the regional European market.[4] Landlocked countries that rely on transoceanic trade usually suffer a cost of trade that is double that of their maritime neighbours.[5] Landlocked countries experience economic growth 6% less than their non-landlocked countries, holding other variables constant.[6]

And also note the HDI differences are very small. Belgium and Finland are below Japan and Germany. Norway is 1 (look at HDI by Norwegian provinces, the urban areas are much higher than the rural ones), but Sweden is 14, with Hong Kong at 13.

[Zeno]

HDI means nothing for rich countries. It's a metric invented by a Paki economist to measure undeveloped shitholes. Just notice how small differences are between richest countries. Few percents.

HDI is silly socialist stuff that countries who have large social welfare programs, small populations, and homogeneous societies use to feel relevant. At least in Canada, 80% of our federal taxes go to transfer payments lel.

Small landlocked countries tend to be poorer. Europe is an only exception in this regard. Not everyone is lucky to live in a densely populated and relatively small continent with a common market and well integrated infrastructure.

Even the most powerful places to live in the Renaissance were City states, the smaller, regionally devolved places with leaders from the cities they planned to live in.



And also note the HDI differences are very small. Belgium and Finland are below Japan and Germany. Norway is 1 (look at HDI by Norwegian provinces, the urban areas are much higher than the rural ones), but Sweden is 14, with Hong Kong at 13.

Let alone the European countries are all in the top 50.