If a demon pours boiling sulfur into your eyes and charges you $100, that's $100 worth of goods AND $100 worth of services added to the GDP. It's a win-win for everyone.
Transcript:
[A skeleton burning]
If Hell was a country, it would be the world's fifth largest economy.
Transcript:
[A skeleton burning]
If Hell was a country, it would be the world's fifth largest economy.
Comments
2025-01-28 01:26:48
The URL for "Read" for this article on the front page points to the previous comic.
Everyone needs to see this message on how useless GDP measurement is but I don't think the right people will see it.
GDP is just a measure of interdependence. In some ways, a higher GDP might actually make your country or region look worse for the average person or might mean labor and raw materials are costly. It doesn't mean your better. It might even mean you suck!
Issue 1: resources created outside of the measured economic system
Russia is famous for its people growing potatoes at their homes. If people use potatoes as a greater part of their diet and they grow a lot at home, that means these potato purchases (and the non-potato food items they would've bought had they had no potatoes) aren't reflected in GDP. A culture that has a lot of dining rather than cooking at home will have a higher food service GDP which tells us nothing.
Every few months the tabloid media runs in circles about rising potato prices in Russia because these outlets don't understand real economics at all.
Issue 2: higher material and product costs means the same goods exchanged in a lower cost economy but a higher GDP in the higher cost economy
If I live next to a fishery I can purchase directly from them just by walking which is free. Someone from a landlocked region distant from an ocean may be purchasing that same fish but is also paying the costs associated with transporting that fish. The GDP contribution is greater in the case of the landlocked place even though it's the same fish. It's a similar case for comparisons where labor costs are higher due to availability, regulation or taxes which are realized as higher prices and that contributes to GDP. If California has a high average GDP that's basically expected for the cost of materials, regulations and taxes to say nothing of the exceptional quantity of wealth generated there.
Issue 3: cost of materials and products against wages
The cost of living is different everywhere. Places with lower wages might have lower costs for everyday items. A pack of cigarettes in Russia might be 200 RUB ($2.05) which is 1/200 of some apparent monthly salary I found for Russia.
Anyone who compares GDPs needs to be slapped.
Everyone needs to see this message on how useless GDP measurement is but I don't think the right people will see it.
GDP is just a measure of interdependence. In some ways, a higher GDP might actually make your country or region look worse for the average person or might mean labor and raw materials are costly. It doesn't mean your better. It might even mean you suck!
Issue 1: resources created outside of the measured economic system
Russia is famous for its people growing potatoes at their homes. If people use potatoes as a greater part of their diet and they grow a lot at home, that means these potato purchases (and the non-potato food items they would've bought had they had no potatoes) aren't reflected in GDP. A culture that has a lot of dining rather than cooking at home will have a higher food service GDP which tells us nothing.
Every few months the tabloid media runs in circles about rising potato prices in Russia because these outlets don't understand real economics at all.
Issue 2: higher material and product costs means the same goods exchanged in a lower cost economy but a higher GDP in the higher cost economy
If I live next to a fishery I can purchase directly from them just by walking which is free. Someone from a landlocked region distant from an ocean may be purchasing that same fish but is also paying the costs associated with transporting that fish. The GDP contribution is greater in the case of the landlocked place even though it's the same fish. It's a similar case for comparisons where labor costs are higher due to availability, regulation or taxes which are realized as higher prices and that contributes to GDP. If California has a high average GDP that's basically expected for the cost of materials, regulations and taxes to say nothing of the exceptional quantity of wealth generated there.
Issue 3: cost of materials and products against wages
The cost of living is different everywhere. Places with lower wages might have lower costs for everyday items. A pack of cigarettes in Russia might be 200 RUB ($2.05) which is 1/200 of some apparent monthly salary I found for Russia.
Anyone who compares GDPs needs to be slapped.
my country is an oligarchic shithole larping as a democracy with bootlickers on each side
Badspot2025-02-03 05:58:54
You're gonna have to be more specific.
GDP also doesn't reflect product under contract vs product as purchased one off, for instance 345 tk is a third the cost when bought through cage number as opposed to private sale (which tends to also be made of cut & reloaded 5.45
Delta Bot2025-02-16 22:09:24
Is the coffee cold in hell?
jazz2025-02-16 23:17:40
isnt gdp used as an economic marker? lotta words to say you dont understand the application of statistics outside of getting mad that the CNN lady mentioned gdp in the wrong context.
Read the long post above, jazz
A high GDP might mean an economy is more reliant on services or prices in general are higher. Cultural values can also influence self-reliance versus paying others to fix or prepare things for you. GDP does not measure how much iron you mine, how many cars you produce, how much beef you produce. High taxes (like any input cost) can drive GDP up because it might mean manufacturers and repairmen need to charge higher prices to make end's meet. The comic's subtext points out how an objectively bad, evil and unnecessary economic exchange raises GDP yet the exchange produced nothing of value.
"CNN lady" is exactly the kind of person who doesn't understand this. CNN lady is talking to a dumb audience who can only understand simple number comparisons and only dumb people talk about GDP. The bigger problem is that all the propaganda institutions intended for consumption by "smarter" people are also using these GDP talking points about whatever nation they need to diminish such as Russia. These dumb comparisons also happen between US states as well. It's really weird to gloat that a state has a higher cost of living.
A high GDP might mean an economy is more reliant on services or prices in general are higher. Cultural values can also influence self-reliance versus paying others to fix or prepare things for you. GDP does not measure how much iron you mine, how many cars you produce, how much beef you produce. High taxes (like any input cost) can drive GDP up because it might mean manufacturers and repairmen need to charge higher prices to make end's meet. The comic's subtext points out how an objectively bad, evil and unnecessary economic exchange raises GDP yet the exchange produced nothing of value.
"CNN lady" is exactly the kind of person who doesn't understand this. CNN lady is talking to a dumb audience who can only understand simple number comparisons and only dumb people talk about GDP. The bigger problem is that all the propaganda institutions intended for consumption by "smarter" people are also using these GDP talking points about whatever nation they need to diminish such as Russia. These dumb comparisons also happen between US states as well. It's really weird to gloat that a state has a higher cost of living.
jazz2025-02-27 07:48:56
Once again, nobody is taking GDP and using it as a sole metric to do... anything. If you do, you're probably a CNN anchor trying to rile people up using language they barely understand. That's my point. Anybody in a position that measurably uses GDP is also using 50 other metrics to validate whatever inference they're trying to make. Even if it didn't, GDP is still accurately measuring what it was defined to measure - you don't get to pick "what should count" when the word has had the same inclusions... forever. Use a different metric if it bothers you that much that using standard GDP shows america as a powerhouse when you want it to be struggling so bad to push some weird narrative.
sarajevo hero 19272025-03-02 17:28:46
the gdp of bosnia is bigger than your contry, ha ha , suck me
srebrenica '952025-03-12 00:07:00
you are worst turk. you are the turk idiot you are the turk smell. return to croatioa. to our croatia cousins you may come our contry. you may live in the zoo.ahahahaha ,bosnia we will never forgeve you. cetnik rascal FUck but fuck asshole turk stink bosnia sqhipere shqipare..turk genocide best day of my life. take a bath of dead turk..ahahahahahBOSNIA WE WILL GET YOU!! do not forget ww2 .albiania we kill the king , albania return to your precious mongolia.hahahahaha idiot turk and bosnian smell so bad..wow i can smell it. REMOVE KEBAB FROM THE PREMISES. you will get caught. russia+usa+croatia+slovak=kill bosniayou will ww2/ tupac alive in serbia, tupac making album of serbia . fast rap tupac serbia. we are rich and have gold now hahahaha ha because of tupac you are ppoor stink turk you live in a hovel hahahaha, you live in a yurt tupac alive numbr one #1 in serbia .fuck the croatia ,..FUCKk ashol turks no good i spit in the mouth eye of ur flag and contry. 2pac aliv and real strong wizard kill all the turk farm aminal with rap magic now we the serba rule .ape of the zoo presidant georg bush fukc the great satan and lay egg this egg hatch and bosnia wa;s born. stupid baby form the eggn give bak our clay we will crush u lik a skull of pig. serbia greattst countrey