Loading ...Rating countries by “real” economic production
A Twitter thread
Ok here we go. “Real economy” time.
The Russia Ukraine war and the resulting sanctions has illuminated something very important about the “global economy”
The “on paper” stats showing economic size and prowess are bunk.
1/20
Quote Tweet
Winston Smith ??
@crim_thought
· Jul 18
Replying to @KhalkeionGenos and @latinxputler
Im working on it right now. Here’s a hint. Measure each country’s output by metrics that would make sense to a Soviet central planner or an American industrialist in 1932.
Iron, steel, coal, oil, electricity, wheat etc…I will share results shortly.
Full Twitter thread here:
Some conclusions (his final scores for what he says is real economic production):
(-note the low score of many European countries)
Not persuasive metrics to me.
I would go with the number of daytime hours that workers in each country have OFF FROM WORK each year, without anyone going further into debt. (Ie, the country isn’t going broke paying benefits and neither is the company or the worker.)
Don’t ask me how to measure that though. But prosperity is measured by time to do what you want. I’d factor in longevity somehow too. Free time is only valuable if you’re healthy.
You’ve probably all read the story of the finance dude that approaches the tropical fisherman, trying to persuade him to leverage up, buy and staff a larger fleet, all to make more dough so he can have more time to take siestas with his sweetie. His response was that he gets to do that already, without all the aggravation.
The French have their 30 or 35 hour work weeks, and 6 weeks starting vacation time (bet shopkeepers don’t get that), but the country is broke.
Great Insights pedro
Measure Success in Happiness Hours
So, now our purpose on this earth is to be happy, and have lots of leisure time?
I think not. There is value in work, production, making something people need and want. There is self-worth buried in that, and it comes out from the sweat of our brow (or brains, as the case may be.)
I found a great deal of satisfaction late in life in physical jobs/labor well done, and appreciated by the customer. I missed out on a lot in my earlier years.
Another factor: how many people have you helped? Given a hand-up to? Encouraged? Given them direction to a better path for their lives?
SB: Those are all opportunities you get when you live in a society that allows you to meet your basic needs in less time rather than more.
Don’t forget, the idea here is some kind of “measurable” welfare metric. Not abstract satisfaction drivers. Those vary too much from person to person. I’ll call them FREEDOM HOURS and the more you have, the more likely your goals are satisfied too.
So Boomer Happiness and Satisfaction in your productive work and in helping others (presumably in your non working spare time ) are mutually exclusive ?
YES our purpose is to be Happy !! Thats the sole purpose IMO
How you go about it is up to you
Some are ONLY happy working HARD
Some are only Happy Playing hard ( Goldballoon)
Some are happy balancing both
MANY are miserable no matter what ( MOSTLY LIBTARDS BTW)
“Happiness” is a good thing. Agreed.
But striving for “meaning” is way way better.
The thread was all about adjusting the measurement of GDP to reflect only those things that represent real wealth –useful and necessary things. What it’s like to live in that country is not part of the formula. Remember, China is at the top of that list. China is a minimum security prison in my opinion. Not my or anyone’s idea of really living at all.
Russia is much stronger that conventional GDP measurements would suggest when compared to most (all in fact) European countries. This is perhaps why Russia isn’t struggling economically like Germany and the rest of Europe. Much of what Europe does as far as GDP goes, isn’t really productive in the useful sense but just economic activity. Europe is very busy but not very wealthy. Russia on the other hand seems to be much less busy than Germany according to GDP numbers but oddly enough much more wealthy.
If Russia and Germany were companies, whose stock would you rather own? Where do you think Germany Inc’s earning are going to be in 6 months? That would be January.
“Real GDP should be how much real physical “stuff” is produced, to satisfy demand for that stuff.”
STRONG DISSENT
Brainpower is also real wealth (makes humans more capable of innovation) and economists do recognize this “as human capital”. So more (or better) education isn’t stuff but is certainly useful. In general, services can be useful or necessary. And some stuff is not, like ordnance.
So “stuff” isn’t REQUIRED to raise the standard of living, which is the point of GDP.
GDP was devised by Kuznets back before WWII, so the idea really does need updating and its measurement also.
Real GDP should be how much real physical “stuff” is produced, to satisfy demand for that stuff.