Who bails out the bailers? Are bloated government agencies like the Pentagon in the U.S. or the People’s Liberation Army in China “too big to fail”? According to the chart below (via the excellent Cherokee Gothic), only three of the top ten largest employers of the world are private companies.
Hat tip to@PankajPachauri for this interesting table. I had a couple of thoughts on it:
1. Very disconcerting that the DOD is the #1 employer in the world. Great stagnation anyone?
2. The UK only has a population of 63 million people. How can 1.7 million of those work for the National Health? That’s over 2.5% of the total population! And that doesn’t account for children and old people.
3. For a still poor country, China’s Defense Department employs a lot of people, making me wonder what the implications of this are for the country’s future productivity.
prior probability 