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0 pointswcoenen6y ago0 comments

GDP is comparable to the concept of revenue for a company, which is not the same as profit/loss. Revenue cannot be negative unless the company is charging negative prices.

I think what you meant is that Berlin has a net inflow of tax money.

0 comments

nabla96y ago

GDP measures value added (final output). If you want to measure total value of new goods and services you should look at Gross Output (GO). GO includes sales to other industries (intermediate inputs).

For example, US GDP is $21 trillion, US GO is $37 trillion.

romanovcode6y ago

This chart[0] clearly shows that Germany would have +0.2% GDP per capita without Berlin.

[0] https://qz.com/753244/berlin-is-the-only-capital-city-in-eur...

yorwba6y ago

That means the GDP per capita is lower than the country average, not that the GDP contribution is negative and not that getting rid of Berlin would be good for the German economy.

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DarkWiiPlayer6y ago

Think of big cities like managers. They don't produce any products, so you might conclude that they're a waste of money.

Likewise, cities have their place in a countries economy, even if it's not to directly produce goods and driving up the GDP per capita.

In even simpler words: Remove Berlin from Germany and the GDP of the rest of the country would also go down.

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