Mfs seem to have forgotten that Chinese GDP PPP is already higher than the US

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    52
    ·
    2 months ago

    GDP is bullshit anyway, if a storm hits a city causing 200B of damage the repairs get counted to GDP but the destruction does not.

    It’s just a totally phony propaganda number with mutable definitions

    • poor people getting a nutritious meal and shelter does nothing for GDP and therefore bad.

      building a kill house to train heavily armed and militarized police murder squads against your own citizens is good for GDP and therefore good.

      neoliberal economic theory: it’s just that easy.

    • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      2 months ago

      I presume that whoever owns the infrastructure will be able to report the losses and so reduce the GDP calculations. Damage to homes will probably also play a part in the calculations as their values are tracked by banks and the government. For smaller personal assets, I don’t think the value would be tracked. Also, the 200B damages counting towards GDP could have been spent elsewhere, so the storm wouldn’t really increase GDP. It would also reduce personal incomes of city dwellers.

      As much as we like to shit on bourgeois economists, I think even they at least know better than to pull a broken window fallacy with GDP calculations, since that is something you are taught even in econ 101.

      The real thing that (nominal) GDP measures is purchasing power of countries relative to other countries on the international markets at current prices (assuming frictionless trade). I do think it is a useful number to denote a few things, like, 1. is the country in a recession, 2. where does this country stand wrt imperialism, 3. how developed the country is.

      • FuckyWucky [none/use name]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        19
        ·
        2 months ago

        infrastructure is considered a ‘stock’ you measure it at any point in time.

        GDP is a ‘flow’, total value of final goods and services measured over a year. so if a country has a bridge worth $100b, that won’t be included in GDP since it already exists, it won’t be shown when its destroyed/depreciates either. it is only measured for the year its built, no other year.

        so if a storm hits, people lose jobs, homes, reduce consumption, GDP falls. to counter some of the effects, the Government injects money through jobs programs, stimulus checks, ppp loans etc which prevents some of the fall.

        • Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          2 months ago

          GDP is a ‘flow’, total value of final goods and services measured over a year. so if a country has a bridge worth $100b, that won’t be included in GDP since it already exists, it won’t be shown when its destroyed/depreciates either. it is only measured for the year its built, no other year.

          Yeah, I don’t know why I said that the destruction of the bridge would be counted. For GDP metrics, the product/service is assumed to have been consumed entirely in the year it was sold.