It Is Europeans Who Are Mostly In Debt

If you think it is Americans who are to blame as having borrowed too much more than they could afford, then think twice!

Take a look at the top external debt (in US dollars) per capita data by countries, these data apparently show that many European countries are in ridiculously deeper debt.

Among these 18 countries, Monaco and Ireland are more than 10 times of their GDP could produce. Only three non-European countries are on the list, those are Qatar, Australia and the USA.

People in rich country do have more purchasing  power to leverage their debt. For such fair comparison, I took their high GDP per capita to normalize their high debt. So here is the list of Debt per capita as percentage of GDP per capita (the debt-to-GDP ratio).

Again, after the normalization, these Europeans are still on the top of the list. Taking Monaco as example, people in Monaco share the average debt as high as over 18 times as their GDP contribution. As I expected, two poor countries, Zimbabwe and Liberia, are also borrowing money around as twice what they could produce.

With such per-capita GDP normalization, it is equally fair to judge the debt of each country, no matter they are poor or rich. So I plot a scatter chart of all countries in the whole world to examine their normalized per-capita debt in relate to their GDP contribution. If every country borrows money at the same level as the same ratio to their GDP contribution, the fit line should be flat.

However, the figure turns out to be upper bend to many rich countries. It is obvious that many rich countries, especially those in Europe, are responsible for their deeper debt as over borrowing money externally.

In a huge contrast, Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, China as well as India only show their small fraction of debt (under 30%) in comparison to their GDP.

Poor Countries, High Birth Rate

Poor countries tend to have high birth rate. I use the available data for over 225 countries around the world to plot the following scatter chart.

The correlation coefficient of –0.54 shows such an inverse relation statistically.

Why human laugh? What is laugh for?

Infants laugh, with no consciousness of showing their expression. It is then more spontaneous.

Adults laugh, though taking certain consciousness of showing their expression, sometimes so intensive often as it is getting out of control to the level of choking. It is then also quite spontaneous.

Job vs. Career

If you are looking for a job that you need, you’d rather try to create a career that needs you!

I Envy Their Smiles

Right before the door of an elevator was opening, a wave of loud laugh inside the elevator chamber approached to my ears. Then I saw two hotel janitors were walking out, carrying cleaning cart with room supplies, still with huge smiles on their faces, though they lowered their volume having realized a dressed-up solemn guest awaiting right outside of the elevator.

My first impression was in regard of the discipline of hotel staffs as I chose this inexpensive lodging place. A moment later just as I was stepping in the elevator I noticed their unrestrained smile still on their faces through the half-closed door, my second thought then came cross my mind as what the priceless smiles... ...

Traveling down to San Diego for a customer meeting, as always I prepared presentation late night and was still bearing the pressure of how to advocate my solution in the meeting. Comparing with the simple life of the two janitors, I may have a lot that they have ever dreamed of, however, what I missed is such kind of unrestrained smiles on my own face. I couldn't help envying their simple life and dropping whatever on my shoulder willingly in this plain early morning!

为政

子曰：

道之以政，齐之以刑，民免而无耻。
道之以德，齐之以礼，有耻且格。

知之，好之，乐之

知之不如好之；好之不如乐之。

Bow Down to Yourself

Practicing Yoga, we know we would surrender ourselves and let everything go. To make peace to others, one should be able to make peace to himself first without forcing himself to gain nor worrying about himself being lost. So bow down to your internal downward dog pose.