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This kind of comparison is ridiculous. Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a gi
by joejohnson 15y ago
This kind of comparison is ridiculous. Gross domestic product (GDP) refers to the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period. [Wikipedia] It would have units of [money]/[time]. Apple's cash hoard is just a lump sum reserve; it has units of [money]. To compare the two is meaningless.
A similarly meaningless comparison would be between distance and speed or countless others. Simple dimensional analysis shows how inane this whole comparison is.
- harryh 15y agoIt is not a meaningless comparison. It means that Apple could (theoretically) buy the entire output of any one of these countries for an entire year. How much that matters is certainly unclear, but it's interesting to think about for sure.
- pbw 15y agoIt's not ridiculous to compare something to something/time. I could say a restaurant has more food in the kitchen than a family could eat in a month. That is what we are saying here, a company has more money in the bank than many countries produce in a year. It doesn't have to be the case, we could live in a world where companies are small and countries are all large in comparison. We don't.