thesaker | Consider the hypothetical case of an economy with annual GDP of 5
trillion US dollars, the broad economic dynamics of which are the
subject matter of this exploration.
The hypothetical country whose economy we analyse here is named AB,
because its internal economy is composed of two distinct components A
and B. The total population of AB is 100 million, but only about 2% of
it belongs to B; the rest of it belongs to A. For the ease of dealing
with round numbers, we shall say that A and B have populations of 100
million and 2 million respectively.
To a large extent, A and B are geographically separated within AB,
but the separation is not total. Intermingling does occur. Main roads
and highways, for example, carry cars belonging to members of both A and
B. Commercial airlines also carry members of both A and B, whereas
private and chartered airplanes carry mostly the members of B. Schools,
residences, shops, recreation et cetera are largely segregated, since the members of B see themselves as being a class apart.
From the point of view of governance, the members of B have almost
total control over how the country AB is legislated and governed. Any
attempt by members of A to have their voice heard is met with hysterical
and shrill denunciations by members of B – using terms such as
“nationalism”, “populism”, “socialism”, “deplorable” and so on.
From the point of view of economic prosperity, the members of B are
doing far, far better than those of A. In fact the total GDP of AB is
about equally divided between A and B, which means that an average
member of B earns about fifty times more per year than the average
member of A.
