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What might be a richer nation? There are no records of one. There are other quite rich ones today, perhaps with higher wealth per citizen averages. Perhaps a we
by quantified 3y ago
What might be a richer nation? There are no records of one. There are other quite rich ones today, perhaps with higher wealth per citizen averages. Perhaps a wealthier nation existed once and left no trace.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoWhich choices go into your operationalization of wealth and why did you make them?
- quantified 3y agoAvailability of shelter, food, water, medicine, transportation. Are they evenly available to all? No. Are they there to be available? Yes. Neither Caesar Augustus not Louis the XVIth could have travelled from Los Angeles to New York City in a quarter of a day and it takes only 1 week of labor at USD 10/hour to obtain the needed money. There are many measures of wealth for a nation though, and they aren't the same as measurea of wealth for individual people. What measures do you usually employ?
- kelseyfrog 3y agoCan you help me understand why you chose availability rather than accumulation?
- quantified 3y agoI don't operationalize anything, I'm just listing and describing. Things aren't available unless they are either accumulated already or can be produced quickly from other things that already are accumulated. There is enormous wealth in all the infrastructure and institutions large and small. For all the value in the medicines that currently sit on shelves, the ability to crank up production of some if deemed necessary is of great value too. We're not great at allocating the national wealth IMHO but we can see countries that do it much worse.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoWhat is operationalization in your mind?
- quantified 3y agoMaybe I misunderstand it. What is it in your mind? I cannot make wealth operational, it is not in itself a mechanism.
- BMc2020 3y agoMaybe Spain. For a century they got all the gold and silver that could be found in South America. Blew it all on wars and extravagance.
- quantified 3y agoRight, they had money. For all the precious metal they could extract, their armada really wouldn't hold up to a carrier fleet. There's money and then there's everything that the money can be spent on.
- Shawnj2 3y agoThe British empire or Roman Empire?
- quantified 3y agoOn what measures of wealth?
- cyanydeez 3y agoThe key word is "in history"