Earlier quoted context omitted.
> more diverse than every single European country by what metric?
Are you ready doubting whether the US as whole are more diverse than any single European country?
No, im asking by which metric.
The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
701–710 of 767 posts
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#702Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If it happens both ways then it doesn't matter why, Wrong. [snip bitterness] While we're dispensing with unsolicited advice about what is and is not important in how we think, you can just choose to not be upset by this stuff. The fact is here that lots of people are getting irrationally upset by the this GDP story. You can make peace with that and just move on without having to start bashing America or Americans.…
Whatever buddy
That's the spirit. And you're welcome, you'll find that you feel much better when not upsetting yourself about things like this.
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#703Earlier quoted context omitted.
They aren't that similar. US has at-will employment, it's very straightforward. In the UK that's only true for a short period, then Euro-style worker protections start kicking in.
That depends on the kind of contract you have. Comparing different legal systems and different practical implementations of those systems is hard - but I think the basic claim, that there's a inverse correlation between employee's rights and economic growth, isn't visible within the EU or elsewhere. The UK is a good example because they have aggressively reduced the safeguards for workers (between 2014-2017 it was es…
I'm confused, isn't an employee tribunal free? Or do you mean it wasn't between 2014-2017 and has become free since?
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#704This is a bit of a frame trap. Here’s another metric: ==2021== Life expectancy in EU: 80 Life expectancy in US: 76 ==Rolling back to 2008== Life expectancy in EU: 79 Life expectancy in US: 78 What’s the point? Maybe GDP isn’t the most important indicator. The US can double it’s GDP by making healthcare more expensive and extracting every last dime from the elderly, but can it actually improve quality of life for peop…
Most of that life expectancy gap is due to obesity I'd guess.
I doubt that. Obesity is why I'd die at 70 instead of 80 and be sick as dog the last 10 years of my life.
I suspect what's driving down life expectancy is me OD'ing on fentanyl at 30 or getting killed in a shoot out at 20 or dying in a car crash at 10.
Short version of what I think is going on - young people dying lowers life expectancy a lot more then old people dying a bit earlier then they might have.
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#705Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://archive.is/Gg6k8 Also, in the GINI table on the wiki page, Netherlands and Sweden have more wealth inequality than the US. Also, I find the GINI formula quite flawed as it puts India as being more equal than many EU states which I find hard to believe. To me wealth inequality is how much of the country's wealth the top % own versus the bottom %, and at least in Germany and Austria it's pretty bad.
> To me wealth inequality is how much of the country's wealth the top % own versus the bottom % That's exactly what the GINI formula is, though. (Pedantry: the formula can be applied to any measurement, be it income or wealth or blueberries. We'll assume wealth.) The reason some of those numbers look weird to you is that the most common form of wealth is house ownership. In Germany, Benelux and Scandinavia house owne…
>Or someone who must rent because he cannot afford a house, but earns a much higher salary and has more disposable income?
Poverty is relative. What use is it earning a high salary than someone from a poorer country if you can't afford to live in your richer country?
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#706Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Americans would disagree with the implication that the US has done particularly well over the last 15 years, even though going by nominal dollars that seems to be the case.
That’s true, and it’s the point. The reality is that there American system sucks by some metrics, and yet by others which are real and not BS, the US economy crushes. In the end human flourishing, and life satisfaction are more important than GDP, but at the same time GDP is real and it does matter.
I think the issue is more than the divergence between what nominal GDP suggests and what people feel demonstrates that nominal GDP is not a useful metric. It essentially measures your ability to buy things denominated in USD. Some of those things are important and others are peripheral. But the purchasing power of most of the important USD-denominated goods is already reflected in the PPP adjustment. So that leaves the peripheral stuff. So for example, the standard of living in South Korea is probably closer to the country's $45,000 PPP GDP per capita, than to its $35,000 nominal GDP per capita. It doesn't really make a difference that South Koreans can purchase fewer MacBooks and must instead buy Samsung products.
It's similar to people who insist that folks in New York or San Francisco are better off than folks in Texas because of higher incomes, without adjusting for cost of living. If that was true, domestic net migration patterns wouldn't look the way they do. Yes, folks in New York or San Francisco can buy more MacBooks, but that's not a useful metric.
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#707Earlier quoted context omitted.
The CPI only includes OER (owner equivalent rent), not housing prices. OER is also a lagging indicator due to it being calculated on current rental expenses, not market rate rents (eg. when people move and their rental expenses get adjusted for the market). A study by the San Francisco fed in 2022 [0] calculated that based on Zillow market data, the rent component of the CPI is to increase by about seven percent each…
"OER is also a lagging indicator due to it being calculated on current rental expenses, not market rate rents." What kind of an argument is this? Clearly the OER must be a current indicator (i.e. not lagging) if it is based on current rental expenses. The small section of the population that is in the market for a new place to live should not be taken as the average for the entire population. If anything the market r…
Rents are negotiated for a fixed period of time and are not necessarily increased to the market rate every year, hence the current price being paid being a lagging indicator of market prices.
If you were tracking the inflation of banana prices and the market price for bananas went up 10% year over year, does someone having a fixed price contract from a year ago affect the actual inflation of banana prices?
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#708Earlier quoted context omitted.
> cancer patient is diagnosed, the GDP goes up. Is this how we measure economic progress? Yes, obviously so! Diagnosing cancer early is one of the best ways to save someone from it. The cancer is there anyway, it's a natural occurrence. The economic activity that leads to and follows a cancer diagnosis is what economists call wealth: the things we do for each other than make each side mutually better off. All the exa…
I think it was more that the harm caused in these (presumably) avoidable examples is not counted negatively. Preventing cancer makes less GDP than curing it; smoothly transporting oil without incident makes less GDP than spilling it.
Why does preventing cancer make less GDP than curing it? That would surely depend on how you're trying to prevent cancer. By prevent do you mean keeping a cancer somewhat under control?
> smoothly transporting oil without incident makes less GDP than spilling it.
Oil creates huge economic activity when used. It does no good spread over the ocean. The cleanup generates activity, but it's clearly far better for GDP to smoothly transport oil around than constantly lose it, if only because ships constantly sinking would cause people to transport things way less and so markets would be less efficient, yielding less wealth.
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#709Earlier quoted context omitted.
..Ok but we're talking about the size of the economy you do know that right? Did you read even the headline?
The title of a headline does not dictate what I get to think and talk about. I'm not twelve.
You seem emotional about these facts. I'll let you get on with your day.
Re: The US economy and the EU were the same size in 2008, the US is now nearly 2X
#710Earlier quoted context omitted.
That depends on the kind of contract you have. Comparing different legal systems and different practical implementations of those systems is hard - but I think the basic claim, that there's a inverse correlation between employee's rights and economic growth, isn't visible within the EU or elsewhere. The UK is a good example because they have aggressively reduced the safeguards for workers (between 2014-2017 it was es…
I'm confused, isn't an employee tribunal free? Or do you mean it wasn't between 2014-2017 and has become free since?
It wasn't free between 2014-2017. They changed the law to make it cost about a thousand bucks, then the highest court struck the change down as unlawful.