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> Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output Look at it the other way, the UK
by skratlo 8y ago
> Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output
Look at it the other way, the UK can house & feed more people with the same economic output, therefore being more efficient at those tasks.
- mikeash 8y agoDoes that mean the Central African Republic is the most efficient economy on the planet?
- tomp 8y agoDoes the Central African Republic have a comparable standard of living to the UK and California?
- adjkant 8y agoNo, because the quality of life is not similar. I think the parent of your post implicitly used that quality of life and poverty rates between the two are (relatively) comparable.
- mikeash 8y agoHow comparable, exactly? If QoL in California is better in proportion to the workforce disparity then the UK isn’t any more efficient. If it goes the other way then the UK is even more efficient. Assuming they’re the same doesn’t make any sense.
- coldtea 8y agoIf they're more or less the same, then assuming they're the same makes perfect sense.
- mikeash 8y agoThat depends on how close “more or less the same” actually is. Within 10%? Sure. Within an order of magnitude? That would swamp the other difference. I have no idea which way it is, but spinning lower GDP per worker as more efficient doesn’t make any sense to me.
- coldtea 8y ago>spinning lower GDP per worker as more efficient doesn’t make any sense to me Well, the GDP doesn't make any sense either. Busywork also increases the GDP.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- tedivm 8y agoThe UK has 1.75x the number of people than California, but has 2.19x the number of homeless people (more than 250,000 as of 2016, compared to California having 114,000 as of 2017).
- jaytaylor 8y agoHomeless people don't die off seasonally due to weather in California.
- Diederich 8y agoDo you believe that exposure to weather is killing a statistically significant number of people in the UK?
- jaytaylor 8y agoHard to say about the UK for sure without further research. During college in Utah I was sad each winter to regularly read stories in the newspaper about homeless people found frozen to death in parks. After President Jimmy Carter closed the mental institutions in the 70s, the mentally ill people were just let out of the asylums without any plan or further support from the state. Since then, homelessness has grown into a ubiquitous and rampant problem throughout the United States. Especially true in sunny California, and doubly so in San Francisco. SF seems to have become the Homeless Capital of the world. A sad and embarrassing state of affairs for a "leading" first world country. To be clear, the amount homelessness in California is not due to lack of improvement efforts. The City of San Francisco alone pours a quarter of a billion dollars annually into services for the homeless. Despite such efforts, more than half of the homeless in the city remain unsheltered.
- andyburke 8y agoNot sure why you think Carter closed the mental institutions: "1980 President Jimmy Carter signs the Mental Health Systems Act to improve on Kennedy’s dream [JFK wanted to create a network of community mental health centers where mentally ill people could live in the community while receiving care.]. 1981 President Reagan repeals Carter’s legislation with the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. This pushes the responsibility of mentally ill patients back to the states. The legislation creates block grants for the states, but federal spending on mental illness declines." https://www.kqed.org/news/11209729/did-the-emptying-of-mental-hospitals-contribute-to-homelessness-here https://www.kqed.org/news/11209729/did-the-emptying-of-menta...