3 ms·

I think your data agrees with OP, you're just misunderstanding it. Yes, richer countries work few hours and richer countries also see modest GDP growth. Cambod

by itake 11mo ago

I think your data agrees with OP, you're just misunderstanding it. Yes, richer countries work few hours and richer countries also see modest GDP growth. Cambodia's GDP growth is over +5% YoY, whereas Switzerland (and the rest of Europe) has more modest GDP growth. There is some "Work smart, not hard." facet to this, which requires an educated population. The other fascet is developing countries exist in climates heavily impacted by global warming (look at flooding in VN or TH this year). They make 2 steps forward, and then 3 steps back when a monsoon takes out an entire town. > Also, even if your claim were true, I wonder if joining the rate race of working harder is worth it. Personally, employment makes my life interesting and rewarding. I love the puzzles (and compensation) that my employer provides. The rewards compound, but in career development and via investing the profits. Unfortunately, I think the one area that isn't accounted for is child care. Societies (rich and poor) continue to extract time away from parenting, via cost of housing near job centers and dual-income families. Offering an extra month of vacation or 4-day work week isn't the same as 1 income household or the parents living 15 minutes from their job.

moooo99 11mo ago
> richer countries also see modest GDP growth. This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. A lot of GDP growth can come from establishing basic services like a functioning healthcare system, insurance apparatus and financial system. Of course, we can't building out infrastructure like roads, power, etc. Especially construction can lead to substantial GDP growth, but once you have a basic set of infrastructure and housing in place, growth is much slower and consistent for very obvious reasons. Once you have that stuff in place, getting consistent growth requires more advanced stuff. The US is very much an outlier and attributing that soley to a difference in work ethic is ignorant at best.
- Workaccount2 11mo ago
  >The US is very much an outlier and attributing that soley to a difference in work ethic is ignorant at best. Right, Europe also has a suffocating business environment which is the primary driver.
- itake 11mo ago
  > This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. Ok, but then compare the GDP of the USA vs Europe as millennials enter the workforce. Entering the 2008 crisis, USA and Europe were neck in neck. Now, the USA has left Europe in the dust. Declaring the US an outlier seems like an odd choice... What country should you compare Europe to?
  - immibis 11mo ago
    Why do we use GDP though? On average quality of life, Europe left the USA in the dust. GDP just measures how expensive everything is. More expensive things is bad.
    - Workaccount2 11mo ago
      GDP is a measure of productivity, which is (normally) corrected for inflation. The point you are making is exactly the reason why this problem is so existential for Europe. QoL is good, so nobody wants to change anything, or feels the need to. But structurally, Europe is not sound and European leaders know it (Just look at the surge in rhetoric about Euro independence). Do you know the story of the ant and the grasshopper?[1] Europe is in a 50 year long post soviet era summer. Most young (and now even middle aged!) Europeans only know summer, so it's going to be incredible difficult to get them to collect food for this mythical thing called "winter". [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper
      - immibis 11mo ago
        Can you provide convincing evidence that this is the case? What is the winter that is coming? And that your proposal will prevent it? And what exactly is your proposal anyway? North Koreans think the outside world is going to collapse because they aren't doing what North Koreans are doing, but it's all just propaganda. You need to distinguish what you say from this. The surge in anti-EU rhetoric seems to be mostly coming from US propaganda bleeding over, and is still a minority. People have been predicting the immediate collapse of Europe and the immediate collapse of the USA for decades. Nobody on the ground, who actually buys groceries, trusts official inflation numbers. How much apparent GDP growth is actually just unreported inflation? I saw some food getting 50-100% more expensive over the last 5 years, which is 10% per year. What was GDP growth? Less than 10%... Many topics condensed into a single comment to conserve rate limit.
- epolanski 11mo ago
  > This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. E.g. emerging markets tend to outperform advanced ones, because they have more room to grow. If you think the US stock market has done well in the last few decades, wait till you see India or Peru.

by itake 11mo ago

moooo99 11mo ago

> richer countries also see modest GDP growth. This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. A lot of GDP growth can come from establishing basic services like a functioning healthcare system, insurance apparatus and financial system. Of course, we can't building out infrastructure like roads, power, etc. Especially construction can lead to substantial GDP growth, but once you have a basic set of infrastructure and housing in place, growth is much slower and consistent for very obvious reasons. Once you have that stuff in place, getting consistent growth requires more advanced stuff. The US is very much an outlier and attributing that soley to a difference in work ethic is ignorant at best.

Workaccount2 11mo ago
>The US is very much an outlier and attributing that soley to a difference in work ethic is ignorant at best. Right, Europe also has a suffocating business environment which is the primary driver.
itake 11mo ago
> This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. Ok, but then compare the GDP of the USA vs Europe as millennials enter the workforce. Entering the 2008 crisis, USA and Europe were neck in neck. Now, the USA has left Europe in the dust. Declaring the US an outlier seems like an odd choice... What country should you compare Europe to?
- immibis 11mo ago
  Why do we use GDP though? On average quality of life, Europe left the USA in the dust. GDP just measures how expensive everything is. More expensive things is bad.
  - Workaccount2 11mo ago
    GDP is a measure of productivity, which is (normally) corrected for inflation. The point you are making is exactly the reason why this problem is so existential for Europe. QoL is good, so nobody wants to change anything, or feels the need to. But structurally, Europe is not sound and European leaders know it (Just look at the surge in rhetoric about Euro independence). Do you know the story of the ant and the grasshopper?[1] Europe is in a 50 year long post soviet era summer. Most young (and now even middle aged!) Europeans only know summer, so it's going to be incredible difficult to get them to collect food for this mythical thing called "winter". [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ant_and_the_Grasshopper
    - immibis 11mo ago
      Can you provide convincing evidence that this is the case? What is the winter that is coming? And that your proposal will prevent it? And what exactly is your proposal anyway? North Koreans think the outside world is going to collapse because they aren't doing what North Koreans are doing, but it's all just propaganda. You need to distinguish what you say from this. The surge in anti-EU rhetoric seems to be mostly coming from US propaganda bleeding over, and is still a minority. People have been predicting the immediate collapse of Europe and the immediate collapse of the USA for decades. Nobody on the ground, who actually buys groceries, trusts official inflation numbers. How much apparent GDP growth is actually just unreported inflation? I saw some food getting 50-100% more expensive over the last 5 years, which is 10% per year. What was GDP growth? Less than 10%... Many topics condensed into a single comment to conserve rate limit.
epolanski 11mo ago
> This is a natural consequence of being an industrially advanced country though. E.g. emerging markets tend to outperform advanced ones, because they have more room to grow. If you think the US stock market has done well in the last few decades, wait till you see India or Peru.