GDP/PPP

[mindstalk]

A quick sloppy post because it's late. I've been involved in libertarian/liberal/soc dem debates again recently, which prompts the matter of comparative economics, and how well various countries do. If you look at the CIA World Factbook, there's a big gap in GDP/capita (Purchasing Power Parity adjusted): US at $44,000, Norway even higher, but almost everyone else I'd be comparing us to in the $30-35,000 range. Big gap! Why?

data links:
GDP/capita
PPP

Possibilities:
US workers are that much more productive as they work.
US workers work that many more hours.
American empire: corporate exploitation of other countries, and Hollywood's cultural imperialism, brings in a lot of extra GDP money, possibly manifesting as extra millionaires and billionaires.
Bias: PPP calculations heavily weight something the US is particularly good at, like cheap oil or real estate.
Egalitarian backlash: higher base wages in other countries means that anything labor dependent is more expensive there. The middle American has access to cheap Americans and immigrants that the middle Swede doesn't. Upside, no cheap Swedes, downside more expensive products. Upside for Americans: servants. Downside: someone has to be the servant.

There's probably data to be found on all of this, but it's late. I think that European vacation time isn't *that* much greater or hours worked that much less, but I could be wrong.

One thing I could test easily: CIA gives raw GDP numbers and population, though not raw GDP/capita, but I can divide. Result: Sweden and Denmark look a lot more comparable to the US, while Norway soars to $57,000. France doesn't change that much. Canada gets worse.

The point of that number is how much power the consumer has on the world market. Locally, Swedes are at a disadvantage, perhaps because other Swedes are more expensive, or because Sweden is so far north. When it comes to imports, they're a lot more equal to us -- which speaks to socdem's competitiveness vs. American capitalism.

Comments or data tips from other readers (james pompe dsgood) welcome!

Comments

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

GDP/capita is interesting at least in the sense of productivity on the global scale, how much the country as a whole can command. So rich people count for purposes of "does the economy 'work', as conservatives say it doesn't?"

Nationmaster has Sweden within $1000 of the US, even with greater vacation times, possibly higher unemployment, lack of Hollywood and empires -- suggesting the average Swede is even more productive per person.

I'm not sure if taxes would affect PPP, since the adjustment is looking at how far a dollar (or kronor?) goes, not how many dollars you have.

I'd love median income data by country. I haven't found it. Nationmaster has some inequality measures (Gini, Richest 10%/Poorest 10%) but I don't see median or anything like it.

But yeah, that Swedes live longer for less is something I've been pointing out a lot. I think what was left of my libertarianism has burned away in the face of The Data.

"inefficient at converting wealth into living standard" -- nice line, heh.

Glad you responded -- I banged this out last night largely so that you could wake up to it. :)

[pompe.livejournal.com]

I'm no economist, but... High taxes means less disposable income, which would directly impact the purchasing power, I think.