Economy of United States

The United States has a capitalist mixed economy, which is fueled by abundant natural resources, a well-developed infrastructure, and high productivity. According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States GDP of more than $13 trillion constitutes over 19% of the gross world product. The largest national GDP in the world, it was slightly less than the combined GDP of the European Union at purchasing power parity in 2006. The country ranks eighth in the world in nominal GDP per capita and fourth in GDP per capita at purchasing power parity. The United States is the largest importer of goods and second largest exporter. Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, and Germany are its top trading partners. The leading export commodity is electrical machinery, while vehicles constitute the leading import. The national debt is the world's largest; in 2005, it was 23% of the global total. As a percentage of GDP, U.S. debt ranked thirtieth out of 120 countries for which data is available.

The private sector constitutes the bulk of the economy, with government activity accounting for 12.4% of the GDP. The economy is postindustrial, with the service sector contributing over 75% of GDP. The leading business field by gross business receipts is wholesale and retail trade; by net income it is finance and insurance. The United States remains an industrial power, with chemical products the leading manufacturing field. The United States is the third largest producer of oil in the world, and its largest consumer. It is the world's number one producer of electrical and nuclear energy, as well as liquid natural gas, aluminum, sulfur, phosphates, and salt. Agriculture accounts for only 1% of GDP but 60% of the world's agricultural production. The country's leading cash crop is marijuana, despite federal laws making its cultivation and sale illegal. Coca-Cola and McDonald's are the two most recognized brands in the world.


Wall Street is home to the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)Three quarters of U.S. business firms have no payroll, but they account for only a small fraction of business receipts. Firms with payrolls of 500 or more employ 49.1% of all paid workers; in 2002, they accounted for 59.1% of business receipts. The United States ranks third in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index. Compared to Europe, U.S. property and corporate income taxes are generally higher, while labor and, particularly, consumption taxes are lower. The New York Stock Exchange is the world's largest by dollar volume; the exchange's parent company, NYSE Euronext, represents over $29 trillion in total market capitalization of listed securities.

In 2005, 155 million persons were employed with earnings, of whom 80% worked in full-time jobs. The majority, 79%, were employed in the service sector. With approximately 15.5 million people, health care and social assistance is the leading field of employment. About 12% of American workers are unionized, compared to 30% in Western Europe. The U.S. ranks number one in the ease of hiring and firing workers, according to the World Bank. Americans tend to work considerably more hours annually than workers in other developed nations, taking fewer and shorter vacations. Between 1973 and 2003, a year's work for the average American grew by 199 hours. Partly as a result, the United States maintains the highest labor productivity in the world. However, it no longer leads the world in productivity per hour as it did from the 1950s through the early 1990s; workers in Norway, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg are now more productive per hour. Spending on the social safety net is relatively low: the United States redistributes between 8 and 9% of GDP through social protection programs, slightly under the Japanese rate and less than half the estimated 19% of the European Union.


According to the Census Bureau, the pretax median household income in 2005 was $46,326. The two-year average ranged from $60,246 in New Jersey to $34,396 in Mississippi. Using purchasing power parity exchange rates, these income levels are similar to those found in other postindustrial nations. Approximately 13% of Americans were below the federally designated poverty line. The number of poor Americans, nearly 37 million, was actually 4 million more than in 2001, the bottom year of the most recent U.S. recession. The United States was ranked eighth in the world in the UNDP's 2006 Human Development Report. A 2007 UNICEF study of children's well-being in twenty-one industrialized nations, covering a broad range of factors, ranked the U.S. next to last.

Between 1967 and 2005, median household income rose 30.6% in constant dollars, largely due to the growing number of dual-earner households. In 2005, median income for no elderly households declined for the fifth consecutive year. Though the standard of living has improved for nearly all classes since the late 1970s, income inequality has grown substantially. The share of income received by the top 1% has risen considerably while the share of income of the bottom 90% has fallen, with the gap between the two groups being roughly as large in 2005 as in 1928. According to the standard Gini index, income inequality in the United States is higher than in any European nation. Some economists, such as Alan Greenspan, see rising income inequality as a cause for concern.

While American social classes lack defined boundaries, sociologists point to social class as a crucial societal variable. Occupation, educational attainment, and income are used as the main indicators of socioeconomic status. Dennis Gilbert of Hamilton College has proposed a system, adapted by other sociologists, with six social classes: an upper, or capitalist, class consisting of the wealthy and powerful (1%) , an upper middle class consisting of highly educated professionals (15%) , a middle class consisting of semiprofessionals and craftsmen (33%) , a working class consisting of clerical and blue-collar workers who conduct highly routinized tasks (33%) , and two lower classes—the working poor (13%) and a largely unemployed underclass (12%).[96] Where it was once common for middle-class households to employ domestic servants, many domestic tasks are now outsourced to the service industry. Wealth is highly concentrated: The richest 10% of the adult population possesses 69.8% of the country's household wealth, the second-highest share of any democratic developed nation. The top 1% possesses 33.4% of net wealth, including more than half of the total value in publicly traded stocks. Though the American Dream, or the perception that Americans enjoy high social mobility, played a key role in attracting immigrants to the United States, particularly in the late 1800s, some analysts find that the United States has relatively low social mobility compared to Western Europe and Canada. Sources : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States#Economy