A British writer has unearthed what he calls a “striking fact.” “If Britain were to somehow leave the EU and join the US,” writes Fraser Nelson, ‘[it would] be the 2nd poorest state in the union.” Fraser goes on to list a few economically challenged US states that have it better than the Brits. According to his calculations Britain would be “poorer than Missouri. Poorer than the much-maligned Kansas and Alabama.” The list goes on, of course–it includes every state but Mississippi.
But even Mississippi might not feel bad sporting the tagline: “Mississippi–almost as rich as England.” Fraser doesn’t have a source for his info. It’s all “original research.” But it’s also a “fairly straightforward calculation” based on GDP per capita. Fraser’s article in the Spectator is called Why Britain is poorer than any US state, other than Mississippi.
