• Rodeo@lemmy.ca
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    9 months ago

    But this growth can mean two things: higher living standards for its population or a more complex economy.

    “A more complex economy” is a great euphemism for the rich getting richer while the masses languish.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      That’s not what they mean. “More complex” means that you start paying for something that you used to do yourself, like paying a cleaner instead of cleaning your place. Or paying for takeout instead of making food. Now there are more transactions happening in the visible economy but you may not be better off.

    • GenEcon@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      More complex means that you focus on what you can do best and pay others to do what they can do best. Instead of growing your own wheat and pottery, you and others pay a third person to get a tractor and you can instead focus on doing pottery and sell them and buy wheat. This way more gets produced.

      And while the wheat you grow yourself isnt part of the GDP, the wheat the third person grows for you, is. Therefore a more complex economy significantly boosts the GDP more than increased productivity. So if you produce your own wheat and your own pottery and your neighbor does the same, the GDP is 0. If you sell your pottery and your neighbor his wheat, both get added to the GDP.