– Mississippi has similar GDP per capita ($53061) than Germany ($54291) and the UK ($51075), so why are people in Mississippi so much poorer with a much lower living standard?

Question

I was surprised to learn that poor states like Mississippi have about the same gdp per capita as rich developed countries. How can this be true? Why is there such a different standard of living?

In: Economics

Answer 1

Goto Mississippi and use public transportation. Then goto Germany and UK and use theirs. You’ll figure it out.

Owning a car is the difference between doing well and scraping by for people of the same income status.

Answer 2

GDP per capita doesn’t tell you much about the wealth of the people. Ireland for example has a very high GDP per capita because it has low taxes. So Google, Facebook etc all gave their European headquarters there. But they don’t employ a lot of people in Ireland.