Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs • Hacker News Board

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#81

Post by mhandley » Thu, May 31, 2018, 3:50 PM UTC

tedivm wrote: post #65

skratlo wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output Look at it the other way, the UK can house & feed more people with the same economic output, therefore being more efficient at those tasks.

The UK has 1.75x the number of people than California, but has 2.19x the number of homeless people (more than 250,000 as of 2016, compared to California having 114,000 as of 2017).

Despite that, UK life expectancy (81.2 years) is higher than California (80.8 years). Not that the UK scores especially highly on this measure - plenty of countries do better.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#82

Post by lolsal » Thu, May 31, 2018, 3:53 PM UTC

jessaustin wrote: post #56

rukittenme wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where does it get squandered? 60% of the federal budget goes to retirement and healthcare. That doesn't account for all of the local budgets which almost exclusively target human welfare projects. There are only two stereotypical places I can think of it being "squandered". The first is the military which, who knows, could be NPV if you consider what the world could be like without it. Ultimately its unknowable. The…

Gosh, what would the world be like if our troops and munitions weren't murdering civilians and prolonging conflicts in a monotonically-increasing set of nations around the world? It's not "unknowable"; we just have to start voting... ...haha what was I thinking never mind. Also what does net present value have to do with any of this?

>Gosh, what would the world be like if our troops and munitions weren't murdering civilians and prolonging conflicts in a monotonically-increasing set of nations around the world?

I imagine it'd be a lot more like the conflicts in the rest of Africa.

> It's not "unknowable";

Yes it is, unless you have a time machine.

> we just have to start voting...

Ah see, but we already do that. The US votes to keep a massive, mighty military.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#83

Post by reaperducer » Thu, May 31, 2018, 3:53 PM UTC

InitialLastName wrote: post #19

Related to this, I've recently been mulling a similar comparison: New Jersey is approximately the same area and population as Israel. The joke in the anecdote is that the two regions' neighbors have similar attitudes about them.

When I lived in PA, the joke was that New Jersey was a sand bar off the coast of Pennsylvania.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#84

Post by reaperducer » Thu, May 31, 2018, 3:55 PM UTC

hetman wrote: post #43

0xbadcafebee wrote: post #40

The article lists Russia as the US's "nemesis". "Competitor" or even "enemy" would have been an appropriate designation, but "nemesis" means retribution, justice, or vengeance. Exactly whom is seeking retribution against whom, and for what? Since the birth of the nation, Russia supported the US. It supported its revolution and supported the Union during the civil war. It even sold Alaska to the US. We brokered the en…

Weird, I've never come across this usage of the word "nemesis" (although the dictionary indicates it is correct). Still, I think the author would have been using the more common meaning of the word "nemesis" as a rival one can not defeat (or even in more dilute usage, simply a long standing rival).

I think the author would have been using the more common meaning of the word "nemesis"

Or we can all be happy we learned something today and are a smidgeon smarter than yesterday.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#85

Post by lolsal » Thu, May 31, 2018, 3:57 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #7

elvirs wrote: post #2

holy cow america is mighty

This is the saddest part, America is mighty but that doesn't translate into the life quality of its citizens at all.

You're making a judgement call. Americans value different things than Europeans (or Asians, or ...). For example I personally would rather live in USA than Europe.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#86

Post by mikeash » Thu, May 31, 2018, 3:58 PM UTC

curiousgal wrote: post #7

elvirs wrote: post #2

holy cow america is mighty

This is the saddest part, America is mighty but that doesn't translate into the life quality of its citizens at all.

At all? American quality of life could (and should) be better, but it’s still pretty good.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#87

Post by InitialLastName » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:00 PM UTC

reaperducer wrote: post #83

InitialLastName wrote: post #19

Related to this, I've recently been mulling a similar comparison: New Jersey is approximately the same area and population as Israel. The joke in the anecdote is that the two regions' neighbors have similar attitudes about them.

When I lived in PA, the joke was that New Jersey was a sand bar off the coast of Pennsylvania.

I used to "reflexively" apologize when I heard people grew up in NJ.

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#88

Post by posterboy » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:07 PM UTC

pluto9 wrote: post #46

danharaj wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which war? Iraq was quite a nice place to live before the Iran-Iraq War, First Gulf War, embargo, and Second Gulf War.

I was talking about the one that's been going on since 2003, but take your pick. I don't need to have been to Iraq before that to know that a very large fraction of Iraqis live in mud houses with no air conditioning, running water, or sewer systems, and always have. The reason those things are missing is not because American troops stole your air conditioners. It's because the average Iraqi doesn't have a standard of…

> the average Iraqi doesn't have a standard of living adequate to afford [such a standard of living]

Impecable logic, technically not even wrong, but ... you are saying the wars didn't cause colataral damage to a significant degree because ... you cannot live without air conditioning?

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#89

Post by Diederich » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:08 PM UTC

jaytaylor wrote: post #69

tedivm wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK has 1.75x the number of people than California, but has 2.19x the number of homeless people (more than 250,000 as of 2016, compared to California having 114,000 as of 2017).

Homeless people don't die off seasonally due to weather in California.

Do you believe that exposure to weather is killing a statistically significant number of people in the UK?

Re: Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs

#90

Post by usrusr » Thu, May 31, 2018, 4:09 PM UTC

pluto9 wrote: post #58

usrusr wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When looking at quality of life, GDP per capita is your number, not absolute GDP. There are quite a few more Iraqis than Oklahomans.

You're absolutely right. Not taking population size into account makes this entire comparison of QOL pointless, not just that between Iraq and Oklahoma. Considering GP is the one that initially made the comparison, I'm curious why you're making this reply to my comment and not hers.

GP wasn't specific about absolute vs relative GDP (American performance in QOL per GDPPC may not be terrible, but certainly not beyond all doubt), the Oklahoma/Iraq comparison was.