Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals • Hacker News Board

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#991

Post by paulryanrogers » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 4:32 PM UTC

throwaway2037 wrote: post #980

paulryanrogers wrote: post #974

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Also, new immigrants (usually unskilled) are doing better than natives Is this true in the US?

Yes, it has been widely discussed by economists in the last few years. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/04/nx-s1-5140039/labor-market-jo... > Friday's report shows 150,000 people joined or re-joined the workforce last month. Much of this growth is driven by immigration. The foreign-born workforce has grown rapidly over the last year, adding 1.4 million workers, while the native-born workforce shrank by nearly 600,000 work…

That does look like a problem. Yet it doesn't mean unskilled immigrants are going to do better than natives, rather that both will have wages suppressed. And natives will still benefit from social services that may be unavailable to immigrants until they become citizens. So I think the statement is still misleading.

Immigrants are only doing better than their choices back in their country of origin, not better than what natives could attain in the new country.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#992

Post by cscurmudgeon » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 5:30 PM UTC

dukeyukey wrote: post #872

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://mishtalk.com/economics/purchasing-power-parity-silli... GDP PPP is meaningless for both geopolitical power and what it means for the average citizen. The average citizen in EU is much better than the one in China/India despite what the PPP numbers suggest as GDP per captaincy matters more. China and Russia resort to bartering due to US sanctions because GDP matters, and not GDP PPP [1]. PPP should be used to…

> The average citizen in EU is much better than the one in China/India despite what the PPP numbers suggest as GDP per captaincy matters more. I mean, the PPP numbers say the average citizen in the EU is way better off thant he average in India or China, so eh?

No they don't. By PPP, China comes out #1.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(PPP)

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#993

Post by coding123 » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 7:51 PM UTC

matthewdgreen wrote: post #863

_1tem wrote: post #588

If you go to the doctor with a problem and get a blood test and they say that everything looks fine, but you don’t feel fine, then you don’t say: “well the numbers are right, I should feel fine”. Rather you try to find what the numbers aren’t capturing, because you know something is wrong. Same with the economy. The perception of the economy being bad is really pervasive as demonstrated by the last election, and perc…

I'm not saying the economy is good. But according to polling, many folks who said the economy was "poor" before the November election now believe it's doing great. All in a very partisan fashion, of course: https://jabberwocking.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/blog_mi...

That says "expectations index"...

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#994

Post by coding123 » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 8:04 PM UTC

vasco wrote: post #693

bormaj wrote: post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an argument that elections can be understood as a referendum on the previous 4 years. E.g. voting for the incumbent candidate/party means more of the same.

Yes but how would that say anything specifically about a particular topic unless it was a defining and undeniable circumstance that happened during the presidency like a war or major scandal - and even then I think it's hard to confidently say "this is why people voted for X" without proper polling (and even that we know how accurate it is - but at least it'd be data).

Because the single largest thing people vote for is how much better they're doing now than 4 years ago. That's just been true forever.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#995

Post by pas » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 11:18 PM UTC

ak_111 wrote: post #705

jack_riminton wrote: post #701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that countries who don't want to compete on the marketisation of everything will lose out eventually. In your example of elderly care, an extended family in Italy may care for their own grandmother (and they'd probably live longer). But the market in Italy isn't so bouyont so the younger generation can't get high paying jobs and move out even if they wanted to. The high spending and marketisation in th…

You highlight and try and predict the eventual problems of non-marketisation but you don't seem and try and do the same to the eventual problems of marketisation. These things are difficult to predict, but already for example we notice some problems with ultra-marketisation in the UK where house prices are now 10-12x average annual salary (it used to average 6-8x for the last two decades), and all the social strife t…

If there would be a market for better urban zoning (instead of the mandatory bribing "attempts" of various officials) housing could be built much much more efficiently.

(It's a tragedy that most housing constructions are basically suburb expansions or "terraced properties" or these few sad few storey things. There's no vision at all.)

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#996

Post by wyclif » Fri, Dec 06, 2024, 11:42 PM UTC

b112 wrote: post #616

ithkuil wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perception can be manipulated in many ways. People get used to things and give for granted things that used to be luxuries a few generations back (see "hedonic treadmill") Combine that with active participants who control the media landscape and have a vested interest in painting a bleak picture so they can be the ones fixing it. And then of course there is the fact that things are of course objectively hard for many…

Tangently, being poor in a wealthy area is far different than being poor in a poor area. An example being "cast offs". In my early 20s, I moved from a poorer rural area, to a well to do city suburb. Walking to various places, I noticed things cast aside that would never, ever be thrown away in the area I grew up in. Examples being: * an expensive propane bbq, with damage to one of the hoses. A $10 repair and I had a…

I take your point. I was at a very preppy east coast school whose name you've definitely heard of.

One day I was walking past a high-end apartment complex where I knew a lot of sorority girls lived. There was one of those expensive chrome-plated Kirby vacuums in a trash dumpster. I took a closer look and it appeared to be brand new.

I pulled it out of the dumpster and carried it down the street to my much more modest apartment complex and plugged it in out on the terrace. Turns out the only thing wrong was the dust bag was full. I had some extra bags, so it didn't cost me anything to get one of the best vacuums money can buy almost brand new.

I couldn't believe someone had pitched it in the bin just because the bag was full. But apparently wealthy people do stuff like that all the time.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#997

Post by ein0p » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 7:10 AM UTC

wslh wrote: post #666

ein0p wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US owes its "economic strength" to the ability to print $2T/yr in perpetuity and buy stuff with that money. Once that tap ceases to function (which eventually it will, though not anytime soon), the US is going to be fucked beyond any recognition.

Even if you are correct, it might be worth mentioning that the US is the top military power, which adds strength to the equation.

Some folks from Afghanistan and Yemen must have died laughing after reading that sentence.

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#998

Post by michaelcampbell » Sat, Dec 07, 2024, 2:54 PM UTC

_1tem wrote: post #588

If you go to the doctor with a problem and get a blood test and they say that everything looks fine, but you don’t feel fine, then you don’t say: “well the numbers are right, I should feel fine”. Rather you try to find what the numbers aren’t capturing, because you know something is wrong. Same with the economy. The perception of the economy being bad is really pervasive as demonstrated by the last election, and perc…

"The map is not the territory"

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#999

Post by fennecfoxy » Mon, Dec 09, 2024, 2:23 PM UTC

loxodrome wrote: post #98

spiderfarmer wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU is number one in quality of life and that’s all that matters to me. If we work just hard enough to maintain and maybe even improve it, other countries can do their pissing contest.

I’m an American living in France for the past two years and cannot wait to move back to the USA. The taxes are so extreme and salaries so low that no one can even invest in the stock market. If I stay here, I will be able to leave virtually nothing to my kids when I die. The EU can take its 5 weeks of vacation and go fuck itself.

Instead, you'd rather spend all of that money on healthcare in the US and still have nothing left behind.

What's the point of inheriting a life in a corporate hellscape (presuming you live in a tech city).

Re: Why America's economy is soaring ahead of its rivals

#1000

Post by indemnity » Tue, Dec 10, 2024, 12:41 AM UTC

b112 wrote: post #616

ithkuil wrote: post #606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perception can be manipulated in many ways. People get used to things and give for granted things that used to be luxuries a few generations back (see "hedonic treadmill") Combine that with active participants who control the media landscape and have a vested interest in painting a bleak picture so they can be the ones fixing it. And then of course there is the fact that things are of course objectively hard for many…

Tangently, being poor in a wealthy area is far different than being poor in a poor area. An example being "cast offs". In my early 20s, I moved from a poorer rural area, to a well to do city suburb. Walking to various places, I noticed things cast aside that would never, ever be thrown away in the area I grew up in. Examples being: * an expensive propane bbq, with damage to one of the hoses. A $10 repair and I had a…

Not having to be scanning for threats 24/7 also frees up mental bandwidth for more productive activities.

We moved from a dangerous inner city suburb where that was the case, to the edges of an affluent enclave as a kid, and my grades improving and extra curricular activities like getting good at computers and getting a holiday job which kickstarted my tech career, all followed that move.