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GDP (or GWP) is a flow: how much stuff we produce each year. Wealth is a stock: how much total stuff we've already produced and not consumed.
by evanpw 11y ago
GDP (or GWP) is a flow: how much stuff we produce each year. Wealth is a stock: how much total stuff we've already produced and not consumed.
- vinceguidry 11y agoYes, you can't redistribute flows politically in any kind of a meaningful fashion. When you do that it's called a planned economy, and is generally inferior at raising living standards to market economies.
- evanpw 11y agoI'm sympathetic to your ideas, but you're really overstating your case here. Redistributing income is probably the primary activity of governments in rich countries today. Even in the US, transfer payments are about 14% of GDP: https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=2Qi3 https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=2Qi3
- jljljl 11y agoOops, misread the original post.