It is would be interesting to know how much GDP figures are skewered by a large service sector.

For instance if you go out to a Restaurant and spend £100 on a meal, then that £100 becomes part of the GDP figures. If on the other hand you eat the very same meal at home then there's nothing added to GDP at all.
Soo...in places like the US where everyone seems to eat out all the time, the GDP figures are going to be a lot higher than in countries where people cook for themselves. Therefore a large part of the GDP figures simply don't measure genuine economic strength: merely service sector money cycling.

Also as I've mentioned before, imagine if GDP as originally intended, actually treated those activities detrimental to human well-being as negatives: Arms manufacturing, Financial speculation, Advertising...

-Whole different story.


It still astounds me that the western powers thought they could trounce the Russian economy through financial fuckaboutery when the underlying strength of Russia is so obviously it's self sufficiency in the basics: oil, coal, gas, timber, wheat, cooking oil...