8 ms·
GDP: Houston, Texas = ~$500B/yr Siena, Tuscany = ~$11B/yr
by jp555 6y ago
GDP:
Houston, Texas = ~$500B/yr
Siena, Tuscany = ~$11B/yr
- kaesar14 6y agoIs that the GDP of this highway interchange?
- mixedCase 6y agoWhile I don't think this direct comparison is valid (at least let's also have the per capita numbers, which I believe is around 60% higher in Houston if Google snippets are to be believed) one could argue that a portion of that GDP is enabled by road infrastructure such as this interchange.
- kaesar14 6y agoAmerica is the richest country on earth. It's such a kneejerk reaction of our countrymen to defend our insane way of life by bringing up GDP numbers instead of stuff like life expectancy, quality of life, access to equitable transportation. America being rich is known fact already. Edit: From your own happiness survey link - "The U.S. GNI per capita income is actually higher than in most of the countries ahead of the U.S. in the global ranking of happiness. There are about 130 countries that showed up as less happy than the U.S. in 2013. Despite our outstanding technological and economic progress over the past half-century, we are without significant achievements in life satisfaction and the subjective happiness of our population. In contrast, uncertainties and anxieties are high, social and economic inequalities have widened considerably and social trust is in decline. There is an impression that the U.S. has not been very effective at turning its great business capacities, human resources, productivity and natural wealth to the best aim: increased happiness." Don't give a damn about GDP.
- mixedCase 6y ago> It's such a kneejerk reaction of our countrymen to defend our insane way of life by bringing up GDP numbers I'm not from the US. I live in latin america where people think like you do and feel everyone is entitled to a bunch of "essential" things by the state using public money, and here I am watching Argentina from the other side of the river as it beats its poverty high score every day right after Venezuela did the same thing with the same exact steps. Just now they socialized the Internet, cable and telcos, wonder what else is going to be "essential". > From your own happiness survey link That is not my link. It's not even in the same comment subtree. > Don't give a damn about GDP. Well, pick a country around here from the ones that share your line of thought and just move. If you can get me one of them unhappy green cards on your way please let me know.
- Daishiman 6y agoDude, they didn't socialize. If you're going to complain about the country then get the facts straight. FYI, if you're a porteño from Av Rivadavia or further up north in the city, your infrastructure is just as good as, if not better, than most American cities. And I've lived in quite a few.
- refurb 6y agoDon't give a damn about GDP. Really? Because it's GDP that funds all those government services and social programs. I'm always confused when people don't give a damn about economics (i.e. during the Covid shutdown debate) when without economics you wouldn't have a functioning society.
- romanoderoma 6y agoIs US society working according to their very high GDP though? Estonia GDP is measured in billions and yet their infant mortality rate is half than US despite their trillions of dollars of GDP
- refurb 6y agoBe careful with your cherry picked stats. Countries don't measure infant mortality the same way. Not to mention Estonia's lower infant mortality doesn't actually disprove my comment.
- romanoderoma 6y agoIt actually does I cherry picked infant mortality rate because I didn't want to pick the most embarrassing US stats, like life expectancy (lowest in the west despite the highest healthcare spending per capita) and homicide rate (4 times the Nigeria, 6 times China, 10 times Europe) The fact that even little Estonia can handle infant mortality rate better than a superpower like USA it's kinda revealing I'm also quite sure that if I picked China and its almost double infant mortality rate you wouldn't have though I was cherry picking US is good at making money, but it's not a good indicator that they know how to spend them the right way > The numbers in the U.S. are partly driven by gun deaths. From 2001 to 2010, 15-to-19-year-olds were 82 times more likely to die from gun violence in the U.S. than in other wealthy countries. Thakrar also attributes the higher U.S. child and infant mortality rates to a lack of preventative care. Thakrar is Ashish Thakrar, medical resident at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System.
- 6y ago
- tomrod 6y agoPossibly, as the interchange allows a sizable fraction to more quickly get to work.
- kaesar14 6y agoPublic transit would've done the same in a much more equitable and environmentally friendly way. Probably faster too.
- mixedCase 6y agoHigh quality, super-expensive (think quality, cleanliness, secure) public transit that requires higher taxation and therefore reduces the incentive to do business there, maybe. If you want to burn some public money you could subsidize electric cars for a long time at a fraction of the cost of the kind of stuff you need. As someone living in a third world country in a city where (cheap) public transit is the norm, I can tell you that faster than private cars/taxis it is not; hell, Uber arriving here was a nice uplift to my lifestyle at a price I could justify ponying up for.
- cmrx64 6y ago197k per capita in siena vs 83k per capita in houston, pathetic
- cmrx64 6y ago(looking at better data, these numbers are wrong)
- crmrc114 6y agoI think the point being made here is that manufacturing and distribution require roads. People can live in sardine cans however manufacturing / industrial sectors cannot. Zooming in on a engineering marvel for traffic handling and comparing it to high density mixed use housing is a tad non sequitur. Albeit an interesting photo and thought exercise.
- dublinben 6y agoThe manufacturing and industrial sectors existed before automobiles, as did cities.
- crmrc114 6y agoRight, next to waterways and railroads.
- romanoderoma 6y agoNot exactly https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_aqueduct https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_aqueduct https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_roads
- crmrc114 6y agoSure, lets talk about cities before the advent of interchangeable parts and the industrial revolution to argue for why early industry did not need rail or waterway to carry heavy logistics. Makes sense.
- romanoderoma 6y ago> interchangeable parts I don't understand why you are protesting. Romans already had interchangeable parts. Evidence of the use of interchangeable parts can be traced back over two thousand years to Carthage in the First Punic War. Carthaginian ships had standardized, interchangeable parts that even came with assembly instructions akin to "tab A into slot B" marked on them. > why early industry did not need rail or waterway to carry heavy logistics you are conflating two arguments. Ancient civilizations became large empires without railways. Some of them built giant pyramids in the middle of the desert...
- luckylion 6y ago... and that's for Siena, the province, not Siena the city (which is the regional capital of the province). Siena the province has a population of 268k.
- oblio 6y agoPopulation: Houston: 2.3 million Siena: 50k What's the use of these pointless comparisons?
- jp555 6y agoExactly - Houston probably needs that interchange with their big population. And not so for a city of 50K like Siena, right? The whole thing is pointless, that's my point.
- romanoderoma 6y agoHouston homicide rate: 12.1 murders per 100,000 population Nigeria homicide rate: 4.5 murders per 100,000 population Siena homicide rate: < 0.5 murders per 100,000 population It all depends on how you spend that money...
- jp555 6y agoHiwi group (hunter gatherers) in Papa New Guinea homicide rate: 1018 murders per 100,0000 population. https://books.google.ca/books?id=YtwSz2A12e8C&q=153&redir_esc=y#v=snippet&q=homicide%20rates%20among%20hunter-gatherers%20with%20data%20to%20calculate%20population%20pressure&f=false https://books.google.ca/books?id=YtwSz2A12e8C&q=153&redir_es... But.... so what?
- romanoderoma 6y ago> But.... so what? That they are an undeveloped society Are you comparing US to undeveloped countries? Do you understand that the richest country in the World has a worse homicide rate than Nigeria? If I have to chose, i prefer living where they don't shoot me rather than where the city produces a very high GDP... Beijing has a GDP 517.876 billion dollars. So, according to the original post, it must be like living in Houston.
- jp555 6y agoYou think a society that's been stable for tens of thousands of years is undeveloped? Interesting. Are you sure Nigeria is as reliable as the US for those stats? You should check out the concept of Ergodicty. In your examples the ensemble average does not = the time-series average. You're saying something like "4 out of 5 Russian Roulette players had a great time playing, so I should as well".