Canada

Canada's lackluster performance can also be attributed to various factors including a dearth of research development (R&D) spending resulting in what he refers to as an “innovation gap.” This persistent underfunding has led to a continual decline in R&D expenditure over the last two decades and currently stands at a mere 1% - a total output half of the US, and lower than most other countries worldwide.

This rings true to me. It's why over half of our best CS grads go to the US. I work in tech and I work in the US because the salaries just aren't comparable.

I think the reason for this is largely on Canadian investors who love to invest in dividend paying rent seeking monopolies instead of innovative companies who would invest that dividend into productivity. Workers can't increase GDP per Capita if there's nowhere to work that enables them, it's a mutual relationship.

Canada has no core industries with a competitive edge except for resource extraction.

Bombardier tried and got fucked by the US.

Nortel tried and got fucked by China.

Blackberry tried and got fucked by itself.

Canada does have the potential for innovation, it just requires far more economic protectionism than most governments have the stomach for.

Today? I think Canada has a ton of potential if a few key categories without competition: agricultural technology, forestry technology, fisheries technology. Canada is also investing heavily into emerging fields like quantum computing and nuclear fusion. What's missing is support for fields that are popular today: robotics, artificial intelligence, and skilled heavy manufacturing (trains, planes, etc.). That's a problem.

Canada needs to better isolate it's technology from competitors in the US and China. We can't let them tear our companies to shreds.

I work in R&D and we definitely see a stark difference between Canada and the US. US companies are more willing to invest in their employees and Canadian companies are more interested in cutting costs. We are hamstrung by our shortsightedness because we can't compete with China/India on cost and we can't compete with the US on productivity as a result.

We do a little turnaround

This country tries to be bigger than it is. On the flip side of the same coin it's falsely perceived from the outside as bigger than it is. As if to be some sort of alt America. I think California alone is bigger or at least comparable to the entire country across many metrics. There is simply no amount of forcing or wishing or hoping some how this country can manifest the economic and industrial output to magically increase by orders of magnitude. Some times I wish everyone would get real about all this and treat it as it is. A small nation.