ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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I’m not sure that GDP is actually under-reported, as it specifically excludes non-market activity. But other measures of wealth/production, yes.
I’m actually slightly kicking myself for not spotting it as I wrote. Put it down to the perils of letting amateurs write about economics.
Americans get leisure time in after-work evening chunks, while Europeans get long vacations. IMHO, leisure chopped up into small chunks is not nearly as valuable as taking a week off to travel.
Think about having to give up your two weeks of vacation in exchange for reducing your work day by 12 minutes. Which would you prefer?
No wonder we envy Europe's working class!
On the other hand, we in the US set our own vacation time through negotiations with employer. Travelling for more than two weeks a year is too expensive for us, so we ask for only two weeks of vacation.
I'm asking a question, not trying to be difficult.
But, isn't this whole thing a matter of double counting.
Americans are better, wealthier, have a higher per capita gdp, however you want to define it.
No one denies that.
So if you use some of that greater income to purchase service rather then using your free time to do them all you are counting is a way in which the greater wealth is spent. If I use the greater income to purchase a better made suit, I am not wealthier because I have a better suit. Because I have a higher income than I did 30 years ago I can hire someone to mow my yard. But if you count the time I now spend playing golf rather then mowing my yard aren't you just double counting. The greater purchase of services is just a way the greater income is spent, not a second source of wealth.