However, many people have always been skeptical about the US GDP, because more than 80% of the US GDP is contributed by the service industry, and the proportion of GDP that is truly contributed by the manufacturing industry is relatively small, so many people think that the US GD

In the past 100 years, the United States has long dominated the throne of the global economy. 2021, the United States GDP has exceeded US$23 trillion, and it still firmly occupies the world's first position.

However, many people have always been skeptical about the US GDP, because currently more than 80% of the US GDP is contributed by the service industry, and the proportion of GDP really contributed by the manufacturing industry is relatively small, so many people think that the US GDP is virtual and even has a lot of moisture.

From an absolute value, there is no problem with the US GDP of 23 trillion US dollars, but the US GDP is indeed suspected of being weak.

First of all, let’s understand the calculation method of GDP.

GDP is a measure of a country's GDP over a period of . It is a very important economic indicator to measure a country. This GDP concept was proposed by the British and has been developed in the United States. After decades of development, global GDP accounting is becoming more and more scientific.

But at present, there is no unified accounting method for global GDP. There are three mainstream GDP accounting methods in the world, namely production method , revenue method and expenditure method .

. Production method.

production method starts from the total output formed by goods and service activities in the production process, eliminates the value of intermediate products invested in the production process, and obtains new value. The calculation formula is added value = total output - intermediate input.

For example, a computer costs 5,000 yuan, which involves many links in this process, such as the value generated by the assembly of some parts used by the computer, etc.

At this time, when calculating GDP, the intermediate investment in each link must be deducted, and the remaining investment is considered GDP. For example, this computer costs 5,000 yuan, and its intermediate investment is 4,000 yuan, so the GDP generated in the assembly process is only 1,000 yuan.

The purchase price of the CPU used by this computer is 300 yuan, which is the selling price of CPU manufacturer , but the intermediate investment of CPU manufacturer is 200 yuan, so the GDP generated by this CPU is only 100 yuan.

and so on, the added value generated by the components involved in this computer is calculated to form the GDP of this industry.

Finally, the total added value of products and services generated by the entire society in one year is the final GDP of a country.

2. Income method.

Income method is also called distribution method. This is a method to calculate the production activities of permanent units from the perspective of income created by the production process.

Its calculation formula is added value = labor remuneration + fixed asset depreciation + Net production tax + Operating surplus .

Theoretically speaking, the products and services generated by society every year will eventually be converted into income from different units and individuals. Therefore, adding all income from economic activities including governments, enterprises, other organizations and individuals, plus depreciation of fixed assets is the final GDP.

3. Expenditure method.

expenditure method is a method to reflect the final destination of GDP from the perspective of final use, and ultimately use three parts: total consumption of goods and services, total investment and net exports. The calculation formula is GDP added value = total consumption + total investment + export - import.

expenditure method is mainly measured from the perspective of the entire social consumption, because theoretically, whether it is a product or a service, it will eventually be converted into consumer goods, and the destination of this consumer goods includes government, enterprises, other organizations, individuals, and exported products and services.

or above are the three most common GDP statistics methods in the world. Theoretically, the data obtained by these three GDP accounting methods should be the same.

However, in actual statistics, because the data collection is different or the data is biased, the data obtained by the three GDP accounting methods will have a large difference.

So in order to make GDP data more realistic, many countries will adopt cross-processing methods, combining production methods, income methods and expenditure methods to finally obtain a more accurate data.

For example, my country's GDP has always been mainly based on the production method, but in the past few years, my country included R&D expenditures in GDP accounting. After accounting for scientific research expenditures in GDP, the GDP of many cities has undergone significant changes.

Secondly, the US GDP is calculated using expenditure, so it is normal to draw a total of 23 trillion US dollars.

is absolutely accurate among the three GDP accounting methods. As for what accounting methods should be adopted, each country will choose according to its actual situation, and the accounting methods adopted in different periods may also be different.

For example, for my country, industry contributes a lot to GDP, so we mainly focus on the production method. However, for the United States, their GDP exceeds 80% and the service industry contributes. Most of these services have only one link, such as services provided by lawyers, consulting services provided by psychological counselors, financial services provided by financial companies, financial services provided by banks, etc. There is not much intermediate investment in the middle, so they prefer to adopt the expenditure method.

The GDP added value calculated by the expenditure method = total consumption + total investment + export - import. The GDP calculated using this method can truly reflect the added value of all products and services in the United States during the year. There is nothing wrong with this.

Many people may think that the current proportion of US manufacturing is so low, and many of them are GDP contributed by the service industry, so there is too much water here.

In fact, there is a deviation in this understanding. Everyone must understand a concept. Whether it is industrial products or services, the ultimate goal is to serve people.

For example, a toy manufacturer produces a toy, which is ultimately for people to play. The games developed by software companies are also for people to play. Is it because toys can be seen and touched, so they can be counted as GDP. Online games cannot be counted as GDP?

After understanding this concept, everyone will understand that the service industry accounts for as high as 80% of the US GDP. There is no big fuss about it, because the US economy is very developed and everyone has more consumer demand, so the service industry is highly developed. These service industries are all generated by everyone's investment, so they must be calculated into GDP.

Finally, from a rigorous perspective, the US GDP is indeed suspected of being weak.

The reason why people are skeptical about the US GDP is not groundless, but there are indeed many suspicious aspects of the US GDP at present, and this suspicious point is mainly reflected in several aspects.

. GDP may be calculated repeatedly using the expenditure method. One of the important indicators of the expenditure method is total consumption, which is easy to cause repeated calculations. For example, a certain resident bought a house and lived in his own place, and the GDP has been calculated once during the purchase process.

However, according to the current US algorithm, even if you buy a house and live in it yourself, the statistical department will convert the house into a certain rent and then include it in GDP, which invisibly generates an additional GDP.

2. GDP brought by the deformed service industry.

For example, in 2019, the US lawyer service income reached US$1.4 trillion, accounting for 6.7% of the US GDP that year. So what has this lawyer service contributed to society? I don’t think it has made much contribution to society, it’s just that the lawyer has paid the labor service, so he is included in the GDP.

3. The service price is relatively high.

Everyone knows that the service industry in the United States is very developed at present, and human resources cost is relatively high. After some American residents provide services, the total GDP generated is also very large.

, but it is also a service. In some developing countries, the GDP calculated by is obviously much lower than that of the United States. For example, if you are a restaurant waiter, the monthly salary of a US waiter may reach 4,000 or 5,000 US dollars, while if you are a restaurant waiter, your salary may only be 1,000 or 200 US dollars. The GDP gap brought about by services like

is very large.

4. Inflated GDP contributed by imported products.

uses the expenditure method. Some data is the net value of the total export minus the total import value. However, after the items imported by the United States from other countries arrive in the United States, the price will definitely be calculated, such as adding 20%, so some data will definitely be reduced.

For example, in 2021, the export volume of US goods and services reached US$2.53 trillion and the import volume reached US$3.39 trillion, while the annual GDP reached US$23039.6 billion. According to the expenditure method, it can be inferred that the total consumption + total investment of US$2.387 billion is about US$2.387 billion.

However, in this total consumption in the United States, a large part of the products are contributed by imported products. There are many imported products in the United States that are directly printed in US dollars to purchase . It is not because they exchanged the income from domestic production. It is just that after they import the products, they add the price to sell them, and they become their domestic GDP, that is, the GDP contributed by trade.

Although there is nothing wrong with this part of the data statistics, I think this part of the data is very virtual.

So after combining various factors, the current US$23 trillion GDP is indeed part of the US dollar of 23 trillion.

On the contrary, China mainly focuses on the production method, and in fact there is a lot of data not counted. For example, the products produced and sold in rural areas cannot be counted, and some individual industrial and commercial households and small and micro enterprises cannot count the invoices. Therefore, the real China's GDP is actually larger than the current GDP, so I think China's GDP is more valuable.

Seeing this, some netizens may refute that since China's GDP is more valuable, why are Chinese residents' living standards not as good as those of American residents?

Everything has a process of accumulation in it . After all, the United States has accumulated more than two hundred years of accumulation history. Except for the Civil War, wars rarely occurred during this period. The wealth of Chinese residents has only been accumulated for more than 40 years. If Chinese residents have accumulated 100 years, maybe their lives will be better than those of the United States.