[Fuzz]

Must read piece for many here, as we discussed per capita GDP and particularity the comparisons to the US.


Here's part one(part two linked in the article)

It’s the denominator, therefore, that explains Canada’s seemingly poor performance by this measure. GDP has grown but not as fast as the population. Indeed, in recent years, Canada has had its fastest population growth since the 1950s. The population grew three per cent in each of 2023 and 2024, almost entirely due to immigrants – two thirds of whom were non-permanent arrivals (on temporary work or student visas).

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magaz...r-denominator/


I think the good stuff comes in part two:

Comparing GDP per capita between Canada and the U.S. is especially fraught because of other methodological problems. For example, the much larger proportion of unauthorized immigrants living in the U.S. artificially boosts its apparent per capita GDP. There are an estimated 11 million people there who contribute to the numerator (GDP) but are not counted in the denominator (population).


Similarly, per capita GDP ignores the value of time. In 2023, the average employed American worked 114 hours longer than the average employed Canadian – about three weeks more of full-time work.


American working hours are among the longest of any OECD country because low wages compel many of them to work extra hours or even second jobs and because there are no legal requirements for paid vacation. Those longer working hours account for much of the Canada-U.S. gap in GDP per capita.

Three-quarters of the gap in per capita output is captured by higher incomes for the top 10 per cent of Americans. There is little difference in incomes between the bottom 90 per cent in the two countries. The richest 10 per cent of Americans receive almost half of all pre-tax income, so their wealth significantly inflates the overall per capita average.
In fact, most Canadian workers earn higher wages than those in the U.S. It is most accurate to measure typical incomes by the median wage (the halfway point in a distribution), not the average (which can be distorted by very high incomes at the top).

https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magaz...anada-alabama/


There are a lot more points in both parts so it's worth reading through if you have bought into the GDP story, and the lost decade and all the discussion around that. Well, it's really worth reading for everyone. Also discussion in his BS thread:


https://bsky.app/profile/jimbostanfo.../3lnem3n35rs2h