GDP measures the value of the final goods and services produced in the United States (without double counting the intermediate goods and services used up to produce them). So, it doesn’t have a thing to do with your salary
Workers are the ones that produce the goods and services. We made the economy grow, yet we aren’t the ones that see the direct benefits of this growth. Do you think this is fair?
I think your first two sentences make a good point, but I also don’t think it’s fair to ask the question in your third when all the guy was doing was explaining the definition of GDP rather than making a value judgement about it.
I mean, more or less. When discussing GDP, you’re discussing things at such a massive scale that only the details of the details filter down. Like the speed of the Earth - obviously it matters, but no one living here is going to notice on their daily walk that the Earth has sped up or slowed down by 100 mph. It’s a tool (ideally) for discerning growth and potential courses of action for large-scale decision-makers, like the government.
But doesn’t GDP also take into consideration real estate and military spending, two things America very much spends dickloads of money on? In an ideal scenario, it would be an accurate measure, but because housing prices are so high and military spending is basically going infinite at this point in the US, you could argue it’s a worthless metric because of how inflated it can be.
Military spending isn’t that much higher as a percentage of GDP than it has been in the past. To increase the GDP by 3.3% by itself, the military budget would have to have over doubled in the last year. As much as we spend on the military, it has not doubled in the past year.
Real estate is a larger part of the economy, but real estate price inflation still would only account for a small amount of that 3.3% increase in GDP. If we assumed 100% of the growth in the past year was pure greed and had no relation to actual supply and demand, it would still only account for under 1% of the 3.3% GDP increase. And as much as housing prices have increased due to greed, you would have to count me skeptical that it’s 100% corporate greed and 0% of the actual demands of the market.
And when you’re not in a high demand field its a thousand times harder.
If you don’t have the right skills, or the right sociability, its nowhere near as easy to just hop around to whatever job gets you enough to live off of.
You might right about the first part. You’re wrong about the second. If you’re not in a high-demand field, you have no negotiating power to get that 15% increase since there’s another person who would work for less. Jumping jobs yields pay raises only in some fields in some markets, likely in the upper ends of the labor pay scale.
Just because something is possible does not make it doable for the average person. Sometimes people don’t want maximizing their salary potential to be their entire lives. They just want enough to live comfortably without killing themselves 10-12 hours a day.
Having to constantly work to get the bare minimum acceptable is not okay. And hustle culture does not change that.
Does that mean I’m getting a 3.3% raise?
GDP measures the value of the final goods and services produced in the United States (without double counting the intermediate goods and services used up to produce them). So, it doesn’t have a thing to do with your salary
Workers are the ones that produce the goods and services. We made the economy grow, yet we aren’t the ones that see the direct benefits of this growth. Do you think this is fair?
I think your first two sentences make a good point, but I also don’t think it’s fair to ask the question in your third when all the guy was doing was explaining the definition of GDP rather than making a value judgement about it.
Well yeah, I asked the question to find out their position. It doesn’t read as neutral to me, but I’m biased, so I want to make sure.
So basically it means nothing to the average person?
I mean, more or less. When discussing GDP, you’re discussing things at such a massive scale that only the details of the details filter down. Like the speed of the Earth - obviously it matters, but no one living here is going to notice on their daily walk that the Earth has sped up or slowed down by 100 mph. It’s a tool (ideally) for discerning growth and potential courses of action for large-scale decision-makers, like the government.
But doesn’t GDP also take into consideration real estate and military spending, two things America very much spends dickloads of money on? In an ideal scenario, it would be an accurate measure, but because housing prices are so high and military spending is basically going infinite at this point in the US, you could argue it’s a worthless metric because of how inflated it can be.
Military spending isn’t that much higher as a percentage of GDP than it has been in the past. To increase the GDP by 3.3% by itself, the military budget would have to have over doubled in the last year. As much as we spend on the military, it has not doubled in the past year.
Real estate is a larger part of the economy, but real estate price inflation still would only account for a small amount of that 3.3% increase in GDP. If we assumed 100% of the growth in the past year was pure greed and had no relation to actual supply and demand, it would still only account for under 1% of the 3.3% GDP increase. And as much as housing prices have increased due to greed, you would have to count me skeptical that it’s 100% corporate greed and 0% of the actual demands of the market.
If you’re not then you should be looking for another job. Nobody is going to just give you anything, you need to go get it.
Switching jobs can’t counter market power, whenever employers have it, which is probably the vast majority of cases. Unions can.
People too lazy to find a higher paying job when they’re being underpaid are also likely too lazy to actually organize.
Unions don’t appear out of thin air. They require a ton of grassroots effort.
And I have never not gotten at least a 15% pay increase by switching jobs. It’s the most effective way to increase your pay today, even with unions.
And when you’re not in a high demand field its a thousand times harder.
If you don’t have the right skills, or the right sociability, its nowhere near as easy to just hop around to whatever job gets you enough to live off of.
You wanna tell that to my software developer friend who literally cannot find work right now? He worked for facebook and spotify and got laid off.
You might right about the first part. You’re wrong about the second. If you’re not in a high-demand field, you have no negotiating power to get that 15% increase since there’s another person who would work for less. Jumping jobs yields pay raises only in some fields in some markets, likely in the upper ends of the labor pay scale.
Pull those bootstraps!
Just because something is possible does not make it doable for the average person. Sometimes people don’t want maximizing their salary potential to be their entire lives. They just want enough to live comfortably without killing themselves 10-12 hours a day.
Having to constantly work to get the bare minimum acceptable is not okay. And hustle culture does not change that.