Q: Does the WB factor in or otherwise account for non-market related sources of goods(hunting, for instance, or even a family garden plot) or non-market perks like free medicine or state housing (or housing that was given to you by the state and which you now own outright, like most Russians)?
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>
> These kinds of comparisons are misleading because of the
> more intense commodification of goods and services in industrialized
> societies. You need to buy stuff to survive in "advanced"
> industrial societies like the U. S.; that isn't true for a
> surprisingly large proportion of the world population
> (subsistence farming, herding, mutual aid, bartering are still
> common outside urban centers in many poor nations). This
> makes the $1/day statistic misleading, because many people
> in the world are not really capitalist "consumers" (yet).