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The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

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Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> it would imply the standard of living is increasing. In USA, GDP includes the explosion of numbers of hospital admin staffers, energy prices doubled, and production of munitions which are given to Europe. That GDP does not increase my quality of life.

Interestingly it probably does not increase the quality of life for most of those hospital employees either by all that much, except the very upper management.

The gap between American doctors and those in some European countries is even higher than the one between software engineers.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#492
post #456

Here’s a better comparison. The thing that really hurt the Eurozone was the 2011 - 2013 recession that the US did not experience. Plus there’s a slower growth rate even in the good times. https://freedomandprosperity.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/... That said, these numbers are very misleading and do not show well what a person’s life looks like in the US. By my own anecdotal estimation, in the EU low and medium in…

> All of this is deep in the political psyche that wants to cut down the tall poppies. What you call "cut down tall poppies" others call "correcting thousands of years of aristocracy-fuelled unfairness". European wealth has much older roots. In a few centuries, Americans will likely reach a similar political point.

Sure, I am aware. And if you let the aristocracy go on for too long eventually they claim divine right.

It is possible that some European countries have over corrected though.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#495
post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> All of this is deep in the political psyche that wants to cut down the tall poppies. What you call "cut down tall poppies" others call "correcting thousands of years of aristocracy-fuelled unfairness". European wealth has much older roots. In a few centuries, Americans will likely reach a similar political point.

Sure, I am aware. And if you let the aristocracy go on for too long eventually they claim divine right. It is possible that some European countries have over corrected though.

> And if you let the aristocracy go on for too long eventually they claim divine right.

Well, the US has become a bastion of neo-feudalism, so there's that.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#496
post #96

Note this chart shows nominal dollars, not PPP-adjusted. The EU has certainly kept up with the US when looking at PPP GDP from 2008 to 2022: US grew from $14.8T to $25.5T EU grew from $14.3T to $24.3T What that means is that the prices of goods are inflated in the US compared to similar goods in the EU. That's all. Want something interesting? Look at China who grew from $10.0T to $30.3T over the same period (!) Sourc…

I have always wondered to what extent GDP (price-adjusted or not) reflects standard of living. By different sources, GDP per capita for Britain is only 60% that of the US, but visiting these two countries I don't see much of a difference in standard of living.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, I am aware. And if you let the aristocracy go on for too long eventually they claim divine right. It is possible that some European countries have over corrected though.

> And if you let the aristocracy go on for too long eventually they claim divine right. Well, the US has become a bastion of neo-feudalism, so there's that.

Fancy term, but can you develop an argument to support it?

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#498

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a strong difference in quality health care outcomes for people of all ages.

Outcomes in the US are high. So are the costs though.

Which means, if you can't afford it, the outcomes are low.

Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X

#499

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No one uses PPP for measuring growth, GDP PPP can increase whilst your economy contracts. PPP isn’t a good measure for population’s wealth or quality of life especially for developed economies either. The economy of the US is still twice that of the EU and its global purchasing power has also pretty much doubled.

> No one uses PPP for measuring growth, I've just started to read Graham Allison's Graham Allison (supposedly based on this article [1]) and the exact opposite remark is made at the beginning of that book, i.e. that one should use PPP numbers instead of nominal GDP numbers when looking at the quality of life. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/un...

Growth is not the same quality of life.

GDP per capita (PPP or not) is a bad (and very lazy) indicator to use if you’re trying to measure QOL.

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