--- Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> wrote:
>
> US States compared to countries with the same GDP:
>
>
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2007/06/10/131-us-states-renamed-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/
>
[WS:] Interesting, but also deceiving. I wonder how this would look if the income figures as opposed to GDP were used, or beter yet, income of the great majority (80%) of the population.
GDP tells very little about the structure of the economy. It is basically the sum of value added (output measured as sales less intermediate consumtion) of all industries, regardless of the "use value" of these industries. For example, a hypothetical state with bloated high tech military may have a higher GDP than a country with small military and a large public sector delivering social services at cost (since "value added" of such services is be definition zero). Yet people in the second state may be better off than those in the first one, despite gaving a smaller GDP or per capita GDP.
One alternative to GDP is "genuine progress indicatior" (GPI) http://www.rprogress.org/sustainability_indicators/genuine_progress_indicator.htm
which takes into account not just "value added" (or "exchange value less cost" in Marxist terms" but also the use-value of the output. The GPI gives the US much lower ratings than the GDP due to general wastefulness of its economy.
Wojtek
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