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Undocumented beavers destroy $1M of GDP doing construction without permit.
by black_puppydog 2y ago
Undocumented beavers destroy $1M of GDP doing construction without permit.
- ggm 2y agoWant to laugh, but this is classic bad economics take. SMBC-Comics could do this one. The $1m can be spent fixing potholes. Massive waste of time, but if the next $1m is used to make potholes, a self-sustaining cycle of making and filling potholes can boost the local economy for just a small dribble of $1m per year input, to the alternating cycle.
- HideousKojima 2y agoAnd they create hundreds of jobs in the process!
- tantalor 2y agoAKA broken window fallacy
- frugalmail 2y agoWhat animals can we use to fill potholes?
- Terretta 2y agoActively or passively?
- moi2388 2y agoMoles, obviously. They make heaps, precisely filling the potholes, but they do this by tunnelling, weakening the ground and over time creating more potholes. It’s a prime example of a circular economy and sustainability
- defrost 2y agoLoch Ness Monster is a good one; see: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/24/pictures-potholes-art-uk-road-safety-toys/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/24/pictures-pothole...
- frugalmail 2y agoThis gave me laugh, thanks for sharing it!
- jjk166 2y agoI mean that is how GDP works. Wasting billions on something stupid counts just as much as spending the same amount on sound investments.
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- buzzy_hacker 2y agoSort of like open source AI model destroys $600B in market cap
- gmerc 2y agoDon’t worry; the current wave is going to hit hope source hard. Likely with Facts.
- Sabinus 2y agoI don't understand this take. If compute-restricted China develops algorithmic improvements to AI, they will just be integrated with the American AI data centres and will push the SOTA forward. It doesn't remove the value of American AI infrastructure investment nor the economic potential of future SOTA models able to do billions of dollars worth of work.
- tim333 2y agoMarket cap is just (no of shares) x (share price) and fluctuates all over in ways largely unrelated to fundamentals. Share price = whatever the idiots buying and selling that day happen to agree on and can depend as much on their mood as anything else.
- Aloisius 2y agoIt's a failure of GDP calculations not to include unpaid work. The good was produced.
- number6 2y agoItaly, Spain and UK include some shadow economy
- forinti 2y agoYou have to include the beavers in your population in order to have proper per capita figures.
- pavel_lishin 2y agoIncluding animals in economic estimates is famously difficult. After all, how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
- tim333 2y agoIt would be tricky to calculate though. How much do you put down for unpaid work by trees producing oxygen for example?
- jjk166 2y agoWhat would be the cost to do it artificially?
- cz450paxq 2y agoIf it was in the US, maybe Faux news would have framed it this way, "why are these illegal beavers being allowed to steal American jobs?" and maybe blame Mexico for that.
- krowfromthewall 2y ago"Faux news", good one
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]