while GDP is indeed fake, having lived in USSR, Ukraine and America there is a real difference as well.
perhaps a real measure of wealth and power of a nation is how many cars it has on its roads.
Russia - 57 million cars
Germany - 48 million cars
USA - 290 million
China - 415 million cars
or let's pretend EU and NATO is the same thing for car counting purposes
Ukraine = 9 mil cars
EU = 250 mil cars
US = 290 mil cars
Total = 549 mil cars
versus
Russia = 57 mil cars
China = 415 mil cars
Total = 472 mil cars
and yes in fact our cars are NOT made in China
there are very few cars sold in US that are made in China such as Polestar 2 and those are getting hit with not quite sanctions, but they do lose federal tax incentives that made in America electric cars get ...
I'm not sure that's a great gauge since most people agree that mass transit is a good thing and countries with good mass transit (Like Germany and Japan) have less need for cars. It's still way better than GDP though, I think!
most people also agree that vaccines are safe and effective and eating bugs prevents weather.
here, i have some writings ( my own ) for you on the subject:
https://dissidentsound.discoursehosting.net/c/urbanism/urbanism-explained/88
I'm glad I typed "most people" instead of "everybody"!
You don't like trains? I thought it was pretty neat to not have to park, unpark and fight traffic when I visited Tokyo. Just swipe your suica card at the turnstile and ride!
my writings are a result of years of debating professional city planners on Twitter before getting banned ...
although you all should still read the hundreds of pages of my writings explaining all this i will give you a hint here so that you don't think i'm being rude and dismissive.
the hint is this: all the traffic and parking issues are ENGINEERED by city planners. this isn't a "theory" this is from actually talking to them. they don't deny this. they now admit creating traffic and destroying parking is the GOAL of their profession.
what do you think lockdowns were about ?
read my writings on my site to learn more ...
Thank you for the summary. I appreciate it!
Cars are also a retarded metric.
come up with a better one and let us know.
Just a quibble that while entire Chinese cars are not sold in the U.S. most (all?) cars will have some raft of subcomponents sourced from China
Isn't Volvo a Chinese-owned company now?
yes it is. i drive a Volvo currently.
that is true. for electric car to get full federal tax incentive not only the car has to be made in US ( or partner countries ) but the same for the battery and minerals used to manufacture the battery. this is all designed to punish Chinese manufacturers and support American ones.
the point is our leaders aren't as dumb as you think. they thought of this stuff.
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