The United States has such a large GDP because 1/3 of it is the private healthcare industry. Another massive chunk is the government throwing tax dollars at a shell company of a shell company of a shell company that moves a government contract for construction around to each other 4 times, all subsequently increasing GDP.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]
      ·
      6 months ago

      And yet Yanks will mock China for struggling to build a 3nm chip while their own country struggles to build a pier. As if one isn't cutting edge high tech and the other isn't maritime technology that's been "solved" for two hundred years.

      • CoolerOpposide [none/use name]
        ·
        6 months ago

        The argument I’ve seen Americans using is “well only the US would try/ could build a pier in a war zone halfway across the world” which is entirely untrue.

        First, almost every country at war does this.

        Second, China regularly builds piers all over the world at a fraction of the cost and multiple times the capacity of this one.

        Third, the US didn’t really build a pier at all if it is unusable and breaking after just a week.

        But that’s the point anyway. It never had to work. The US just had to pretend to be doing something.

    • emizeko [they/them]
      ·
      6 months ago

      Two economists are walking in the park. The first economist sees a pile of dog shit and says to the other, "I'll pay you $50 to eat that dog shit." So he does and gets paid $50. Later on, the second economist sees a pile of dog shit and says to the first, "I'll pay you $50 to eat that pile of dog shit." So he does and gets paid $50.

      The first economist says, "I can't help but feel we just ate dog shit for nothing." "Nonsense," says the second economist, "We just contributed $100 to the economy."