• Webster@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Wealth and GDP are measuring different things, even though both are measured in dollars. It’s a bit of a weird comparison for that reason, but still shows ridiculous levels of inequality.

    Wealth is how much money you have right now. GDP is how much value the country generates in a given year.

    So wealth is kinda like how much you have in the bank, while GDP is closer to how much money is changing hands in a country over a given year. There’s a common joke about GDP - if two people paid each other $100 to eat a pile of shit, GDP went up $200 even though no real value was generated. In this example, neither of their wealth changed.