Archive for August, 2006
Working for the PNG government
August 29th, 2006The PNG Department of Treasury has some positions vacant. From the list:
Assistant Secretary(GEP) K31,289 plus other allowances
Or about $16,000 Australian. I don’t think I’ll apply…
(Of course, that’s about 18 times PNG’s GDP per capita, while I only earn a bit over two times Australian GDP per capita).
The Return of the Blog
August 29th, 2006As you can see, I’m trying to post a bit more often now. I’m going to try and post around three things every day. We’ll see how long this lasts: my money is on less than a week…
(If I go really nuts I might actually finish writing the template for this blog too).
Update: Yep, I did go nuts. It’s pretty buggy though, so hold on to your hat.
Ding Dong, the Pluto’s Dead
August 29th, 2006So: next question – is Mercury a planet?
T-Shirts I must own
August 29th, 2006The global reach of Starbucks & McDonalds
August 28th, 2006Via Marginal Revolution is this neat map of Starbucks and McDonalds’ global reach..
The thing does raise a bit of a rant in me. The chart shows McDonalds as having global sales of $41 billion, which is compared to the GDP of Afghanistan ($21 billion). The message from this is meant to be ‘Wow, McDonalds is twice as big as Afghanistan’. The only problem is that it’s just not true!
GDP is measured in ‘value added’ terms. Only new economic activity is counted. In particular, the cost of inputs (such as burgers, buns and fries) is not counted. So for a company like McDonalds it’s ‘GDP’ is actually equal to its profit on goods sold plus wages and salaries paid to employees, which would be far less than their total sales.
What’s my point? My point is that the world economy is almost incomprehensibly huge, and that even gigantic, omni-present companies such as McDonalds are only a tiny, tiny part of it. Misleading comparisons, such as comparing total sales revenue to GDP figures, takes away some of that sense of scale.
(As an aside, you can calculate a very rough ‘sales’ figure for an economy, using the input-output tables that are occasionally published in the National Accounts. In 2001-02, the most recent figures, Australia had a GDP of $890 billion, but had total supplies (‘sales’) of $2,457 billion.)
Weight: 107.3kg
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Vegemite Sandwich
Dinner: Tomato Soup, Turkey & Vegetables, Christmas Pudding
Steps: 4,941
Snacks: None
Weight: 105.9kg
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Vegemite Sandwich
Dinner: Lemon Chicken with Rice
Snacks: None
Steps: 4,463
Weight: 105.9kg
Breakfast: None
Lunch: Vegemite Sandwich
Dinner: Rogan Josh with Rice
Snacks: Cheese & Biscuits
Steps: 6,450
Weight: 106.6kg
Breakfast: None (too busy!)
Lunch: Vegemite Sandwich
Dinner: Mince with pesto & tomatoes
Snacks: None
Steps: 5,844