From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Fri Oct 24 2003 - 08:19:26 EDT
It occurs to me now that an even simpler way to
get rough estimates for this would be to
calculate:
global GNP
------------------------
global population
and:
global wealth
-------------------------
global population
The latter figure might be more useful but statistics
on national wealth are more difficult to obtain than
statistics on national income.
I recognize that there are problems with GDP
including not taking into account most goods and
services that are not for sale, ignoring the
underground economy, and not taking into
account external costs, but these problems
wouldn't make the statistics meaningless as all
that one would want for the purposes at hand is
a rough estimate. Alternatively, one could try
to adjust GDP figures to account for these
problems if one views them as statistically
significant -- which some of them, e.g. the
underground economy, probably are.
After one had these numbers then one could make
estimates about what goods and services a global
socialist society could afford to provide for its citizens
given whatever the current state of the productive forces
is.
Okay, the above is probably too simple. Please explain
why.
In solidarity, Jerry
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