[hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm]

High streets are dying, pretty sure half the restaurants closest to me are either closed or going to close down soon. Coming back from Japan it was certainly a whiplash to find just a row of fried chicken shops and empty restaurants.

It made me rethink how great of a signal GDP growth really is on how good things are economically.

[bubblewand]

It really bothers me that something like 10% of US GDP is just the amount we over-pay for healthcare compared to peer states. It's basically a privatized tax that buys us nothing (or, to stave off pedantry, certainly nothing remotely worth 10% of our GDP) but we count it as something good.

I worry sometimes about just how much of our GDP is actually fake productivity like that (see also: the significant multiple more that we pay for most infrastructure compared with peer states). It would help explain why a lot of "poorer" countries reportedly don't feel poorer to live in, for a normal family, than the US.

[georgefrowny]

GDP is a useless metric when so much of it basically wash trading.

It's always been a dodgy metric and susceptible to gaming. But now that money is less and less connected to useful value, it's almost a sick joke.

[nickff]

> "It would help explain why a lot of "poorer" countries reportedly don't feel poorer to live in, for a normal family, than the US."

There are many sources for purchasing power parity (PPP) corrected GDP if you're looking for a source on this. PPP-correction does indeed reduce the disparities, but does not eliminate them. It's also tough to judge relative living standards as a tourist or during a short-term stay in a poorer country, as one is generally exposed to 'nice' subset of locales and people.

[LocalH]

GDP as a metric is about as bad as "lines of code" as a metric

[cucumber3732842]

>It really bothers me that something like 10% of US GDP is just the amount we over-pay for healthcare compared to peer states. It's basically a privatized tax that buys us nothing (or, to stave off pedantry, certainly nothing remotely worth 10% of our GDP) but we count it as something good.

<screeches about "muh jerbs">

     -every medical licensing racket organization

>I worry sometimes about just how much of our GDP is actually fake productivity like that

Way more than anyone wants to admit.

[kmeisthax]

The arithmetic mean is one of the great tools of statistical lies. You can sweep so much sample variance under the rug with this baby!