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Profits at the economy level?

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musicgold posted on Thu, Sep 10 2009 1:32 PM

Hi,

What does the term profit means in the context of an economy?
Is the GDP growth of an economy during a year the same as the profit generated by that economy during that year?

I understand how the GDP of a country is calculated and I know how profits are calculated at the company level. But I am not sure if there can be a profit at the economy level.



Thanks.

MG.

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musicgold:

But I am not sure if there can be a profit at the economy level.

 

Not in the utility sense of profit, because utilities don't add together.  In the accounting sense, the profit of a firm is only meaningful as comparison to other firms.  You could maybe say that international differences in GDP can be thought of the same way with respect to national purchasing power.  But that is not 100% accurate due to foreign ownership.

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