I am highly skeptical that you can usefully capture actual comparative growth rates after normalizing for PPP.
Take someone in Kazakhstan making a salary equal to per capita GDP. Unadjusted, that’s about $17,000 USD. With PPP adjustment we say, no, this Kazakh is actually living like an American making $48,000.
Take an American making $48,000 (not too much under the US median personal income of $51,000) and have the two of them swap places. Wave a magic wand on the language and cultural differences, they’re both homo economicus.
PPP says that after a few months they’ll each be economically indifferent to switching back.
I find that wildly implausible: There’s simply no way that $17k USD-equivalent buys you as nice a life in Kazakhstan as $48k does in the US. I’d even be surprised if living off $48k in Kazakhstan were preferable to that same salary stateside, even if you could buy a lot more eggs and a larger plot of land.
I am highly skeptical that you can usefully capture actual comparative growth rates after normalizing for PPP.
Take someone in Kazakhstan making a salary equal to per capita GDP. Unadjusted, that’s about $17,000 USD. With PPP adjustment we say, no, this Kazakh is actually living like an American making $48,000.
Take an American making $48,000 (not too much under the US median personal income of $51,000) and have the two of them swap places. Wave a magic wand on the language and cultural differences, they’re both homo economicus.
PPP says that after a few months they’ll each be economically indifferent to switching back.
I find that wildly implausible: There’s simply no way that $17k USD-equivalent buys you as nice a life in Kazakhstan as $48k does in the US. I’d even be surprised if living off $48k in Kazakhstan were preferable to that same salary stateside, even if you could buy a lot more eggs and a larger plot of land.
April 2025 is when I rebalanced my portfolio away from the US.
IF im wtong, theres not going to be anyone untouched by the failures of this adminstration and its societal paychopathy