The Off Topic Topic

[Iormlund]

Why is Navarra/Basque Country so rich?
My stereotypical image would be that of hardy and proud but poor mountain folks 

Very long industrial tradition, special tax regimes (a right inherited from ancient law codes) and a healthy dose of capital intensive activities which makes them home to quite a few players such as Gamesa (wind turbines), Iberdrola (energy) or BBVA (banking). It also made them less sensitive to the bubble and mass immigration (which means fewer poor people now).

[Admiral Yi]

Average country? Give me a fucking break.

The colors don't lie! 

[The Larch]

Average country? Give me a fucking break.

The colors don't lie! 

They refer to regions, not to the whole country.

Edit: And you also have to take into account the population of each region, as the map is a per capita thingie.

[Josquius]

Surprised Corwall is so poor. Always thought that was a rich area. Loads of rich folk with homes there at least.

Are you fucking kidding me? Cornwall is amongst the poorest regions in Britain, if not the poorest. Any place that has an economy based on farming, fishing and remnants of mining is going to be poor. They now have tourism because of being a quaint and unspoiled location, the fact that rich people have a summer house there doesn't make the region rich.

More than a few and tourism is big money.  Other areas economies were also traditionally based on now gone industries but they don't have anywhere near as much tourism as Cornwall.
As you say its more about where EU funding should go than wealth distribution...They could be given a lower score due to their sucky roads.

[garbon]

Surprised Corwall is so poor. Always thought that was a rich area. Loads of rich folk with homes there at least.

Are you fucking kidding me? Cornwall is amongst the poorest regions in Britain, if not the poorest. Any place that has an economy based on farming, fishing and remnants of mining is going to be poor. They now have tourism because of being a quaint and unspoiled location, the fact that rich people have a summer house there doesn't make the region rich.

More than a few and tourism is big money.  Other areas economies were also traditionally based on now gone industries but they don't have anywhere near as much tourism as Cornwall.
As you say its more about where EU funding should go than wealth distribution...They could be given a lower score due to their sucky roads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornwall#Economy

Cornwall is one of the poorest areas in the United Kingdom. The GVA per head was 65% of the UK average for 2004. The GDP per head for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly was 79.2% of the EU-27 average for 2004, the UK per head average was 123.0%.

Today, the Cornish economy depends heavily on its tourist industry, which makes up around a quarter of the economy. The official measures of deprivation and poverty at district and 'sub-ward' level show that there is great variation in poverty and prosperity in Cornwall with some areas among the poorest in England and others among the top half in prosperity. For example, the ranking of 32,482 sub-wards in England in the index of multiple deprivation (2006) ranged from 819th (part of Penzance East) to 30,899th (part of Saltash Burraton in Caradon), where the lower number represents the greater deprivation

[The Larch]

Surprised Corwall is so poor. Always thought that was a rich area. Loads of rich folk with homes there at least.

Are you fucking kidding me? Cornwall is amongst the poorest regions in Britain, if not the poorest. Any place that has an economy based on farming, fishing and remnants of mining is going to be poor. They now have tourism because of being a quaint and unspoiled location, the fact that rich people have a summer house there doesn't make the region rich.

More than a few and tourism is big money.  Other areas economies were also traditionally based on now gone industries but they don't have anywhere near as much tourism as Cornwall.
As you say its more about where EU funding should go than wealth distribution...They could be given a lower score due to their sucky roads.

There's no score, it's some sort of GDP PPP per capita.

If somebody wants to do some heavy duty number crunching, here's some aditional data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union#Top_10:_economically_strongest_NUTS-1_and_NUTS-2_regions

[The Larch]

Wow, Bratislava really sucks up all the wealth in Slovakia. And so does Prague in the Czech Republic. Guess that's why all the rural hotties resort to porn.

[Syt]

Wow, Bratislava really sucks up all the wealth in Slovakia. And so does Prague in the Czech Republic. Guess that's why all the rural hotties resort to porn.

They've really done a lot for infrastructure in recent years and a number of companies have relocated their CEE HQs from Vienna to Bratislava, so I hear. Outside the brushed up areas it's still pretty shitty, though, compared to Western Europe.

[Barrister]

Wow, Bratislava really sucks up all the wealth in Slovakia. And so does Prague in the Czech Republic. Guess that's why all the rural hotties resort to porn.

They've really done a lot for infrastructure in recent years and a number of companies have relocated their CEE HQs from Vienna to Bratislava, so I hear. Outside the brushed up areas it's still pretty shitty, though, compared to Western Europe.

We only drove through Slovakia, stopping only for gas, but it seemed decent enough.

[Syt]

Wow, Bratislava really sucks up all the wealth in Slovakia. And so does Prague in the Czech Republic. Guess that's why all the rural hotties resort to porn.

They've really done a lot for infrastructure in recent years and a number of companies have relocated their CEE HQs from Vienna to Bratislava, so I hear. Outside the brushed up areas it's still pretty shitty, though, compared to Western Europe.

We only drove through Slovakia, stopping only for gas, but it seemed decent enough.

It's not as bad as some areas, but not that great, either.

[Maladict]

That dark green province in the north of the Netherlands contains the huge gas reserves that have kept us rich since the 70's. All revenues are taken by the national government,  the province only gets compensated for the earthquakes it causes. It is in fact one of the poorest regions in the country.

[Zanza]

Here is more detailed data from 2009: 
http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-13032012-AP/EN/1-13032012-AP-EN.PDF

According to that, Schleswig-Holstein and Berlin should be light green.

[The Larch]

Wow, Bratislava really sucks up all the wealth in Slovakia. And so does Prague in the Czech Republic. Guess that's why all the rural hotties resort to porn.

They've really done a lot for infrastructure in recent years and a number of companies have relocated their CEE HQs from Vienna to Bratislava, so I hear. Outside the brushed up areas it's still pretty shitty, though, compared to Western Europe.

Then they're really good at it, since the Bratislava region is the fifth richest in Europe according to those stats. The first four are London, Paris, Luxemburg and Hamburg. Prague is 7th.

[Zanza]

Even if there are a few yellow areas that only means they're slightly below EU average, that's not poor. And most of the western part of the country is still in the greens.

I understand that.  But it paints a different picture when the rest of Europe is suckiing at the teat of an average country, instead of a filthy rich on.

Average country? Give me a fucking break.

In 2011, six out of 27 countries (Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria and Sweden) had a higher per capita purchasing power than Germany. Two more (Finland and Belgium) have almost the same. Germany has about 120% of the EU average PPP, whereas the Eurozone as a whole has about 108% of the EU average PPP.

[Lettow77]

 I came close to going to class today. Class is important, but the gentle yukkuri was more so- there was a tangible feeling of calmness in the air, and as I felt my air mattress slowly deflating, it called to mind a wonderful sense of mono no aware that left class feeling very unimportant.

I am glad my lifestyle allows me to cater to these immature whims.