[sbt]

> The US isn't just productive. It is productive beyond the wildest imagination of the rest of world.

Productivity has a specific meaning in economics, i.e. labor productivity (GDP per hours worked). What I think you are referring to here is output, i.e. GDP.

You can learn more about this here and see the latest country data: https://data.oecd.org/lprdty/gdp-per-hour-worked.htm

[margalabargala]

That's tricky. GDP isn't the same thing as productivity, especially in the case of somewhere like Ireland where a lot of that GDP is produced by zero workers, it passively happens by virtue of companies routing their profits through there for tax reasons.

I think the stat to look at here would be median GDP per hour worked, on a per-capita basis. Calculating the median is of course difficult, but it would account for large, person-less streams of money that passively flow through without actually being "productive" in the "creating something new" sense.

[bitshiftfaced]

The US does have one of the highest productivities in the world, especially once you discount tax haven countries.

[relaxing]

So the most productive workers in the world are.. those in Ireland?

I’d love to read a deep dive on how those numbers came to be.

[bobthepanda]

Ireland GDP is notoriously difficult because a lot of companies incorporate and book their EU profits in Ireland for tax purposes. https://www.politico.eu/article/ireland-gdp-growth-multinati...

[refurb]

Tax evasion.

Google creates Google Ireland to hold their IP, then Google Ireland "charges" Google Germany.

The problem is, that GDP doesn't stay in Ireland. It flows to the US.

[TulliusCicero]

That chart shows relative change since 2015, not current absolute productivity.