- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
- cross-posted to:
- usa@lemmy.ml
The concept is called “imputations” — which are “what if” scenarios.
Example: When a person buys a home, the gov adds that person’s imaginary rent to the GDP!
That is, if he didn’t buy a home, he would have spent X dollars on rent. There are two more shenanigans like that you can read in the article.
By this measure, China has already caught up with the US a long time ago.
Only 15%? Those are rookie numbers. They should be accounting for the what if scenario of every renter in the US renting 4 separate houses at once, and add that to GDP!
More like 2/3 at least
https://www.unz.com/lromanoff/us-economic-statistics-unreliable-numbers/
That’s no joke, though: the renter pays (1) their own rent (2) the landlord’s mortgage (3) the landlord’s rent and (4) the bank’s owner’s rent. I don’t have the savvy to work out who lives off the renter’s property taxes if they pay those.