Monday, July 28, 2008

Empirical Proof Why America is No Longer a Meritocracy and Why We Should Shoot the Lobbyists

Do you see what I see?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I see what you see, Cap'n, but not being a highly trained economist, I'm at a loss to understand the why. Maybe you can explain.

Ok, so I see Wash DC has this huge GDP per capita, but how can a bunch of government employees who produce little except bureaucracy, highly paid laywers and lobbyists who produce nothing of value , combined with the underclass that lives in Wash DC that seem to be subsidizing the funeral home and burial business due to the number of murders in DC, actually produce anything that contributes so massively to the GDP?

How can government, politicians, lobbyists contribute so massively to the GDP, while producing such mediocre and ineffective crap the rest of us are saddled with?

Is there something wrong with the way GDP is figured?

Anonymous said...

To borrow a phrase: rope!

Anonymous said...

I see a $150,000 per capita GDP in the most wretched hive of scum and villainy in the United States.

Anonymous said...

What, exactly, is it that the District of Columbia produces? Did GM, Chrysler, Ford, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, etc relocate to DC? Why wasn't I notified?

Anonymous said...

D.C. has the highest per capita GDP!

I am reading Dick Morris's book "Fleeced" right now and if everything in that on the lobbyists is true, then saying we should shoot the lobbyists is an understatement. Biggest bunch of corrupt bastards ever, both Democrats and Republicans (or so-called "Republicans," as no Republican who holds true to Republican values could be one of those lobbyists).

Andrew L said...

Wow, that's really something. I had no idea D.C. was that much wealthier than the rest of the US.

By the way, what is so significant about Delaware that makes them wealthier than most of the other states on the chart? Maybe it's just my Canadian ignorance, but to me "Delaware" and "significant" don't even belong in the same sentence.

And to the first anonymous commenter, I don't think measurements of GDP make any effort to account for how money was earned: they just measure how much money was earned. So it doesn't matter if the money is made from good honest hard work, drug dealing, fraud, government spending or whatever else.

In fact, one way of measuring GDP is to add up the amount of money spent (and invested) instead of the amount of money earned. As long as you take imports and exports into account, the two should yield the same result.

Anonymous said...

I'm wondering if it has something to do with population density. DC's is 9,378 per sq. mi., while the whole country is 80.