Until some economist comes up with a better idea, we're stuck with it.
Any suggestions?
Regards JO
Good question.
Dunno.
Check out this list of GDP per capita from 2008.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2004rank.html
1 Liechtenstein... $ 118,000 2007 est.
2 Qatar.............. $ 110,700 2008 est.
3 Luxembourg....... $ 81,000 2008 est.
4 Bermuda........... $ 69,900 2004 est.
5 Norway............. $ 59,300 2008 est.
6 Kuwait.............. $ 57,400 2008 est.
9 Singapore.......... $ 51,500 2008 est.
10 United States... $ 46,900 2008 est.
11 Ireland............. $ 45,300 2008 est.
17 Iceland............ $ 41,800 2008 est.
22 Canada............ $ 39,100 2008 est.
25 Australia.......... $ 38,100 2008 est.
26 Sweden........... $ 38,100 2008 est.
27 Belgium............ $ 37,400 2008 est.
32 United Kingdom.. $ 36,500 2008 est.
34 Germany.......... $ 35,400 2008 est.
36 Spain.............. $ 34,700 2008 est.
37 Japan.............. $ 34,000 2008 est.
39 France............. $ 33,200 2008 est.
40 Greece............. $ 32,000 2008 est.
41 Italy................ $ 31,300 2008 est.
42 Taiwan............ $ 31,100 2008 est.
50 New Zealand..... $ 28,000 2008 est.
51 Korea, South..... $ 27,600 2008 est.
59 Saudi Arabia...... $ 20,500 2008 est.
73 Russia............. $ 16,100 2008 est.
80 Argentina......... $ 14,200 2008 est.
81 Mexico............ $ 14,200 2008 est.
133 China.............. $ 6,000 2008 est.
Ireland and Iceland are there above Australia. We now know that it was all a hoax. They had this massive GDP output, but it was all based on debt and consumption and services. There was not much real industry actually creating something that the world needed.
And China is way down. But nearly half the workforce is peasant farmers on tiny plots of dirt producing hardly anything.
GDP is fine I think to show how productive an economy is. But we also need to somehow take into account how much debt has been used to create it, and if all the productivity is just internal services and consumption.
Too hard for me.
See ya's.