ABSTRACT
As the title indicates, Senex sings that everybody should have a maid to “putter around the house.” But getting a maid actually brings up an interesting point with how Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is calculated. GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a given period of time. It is used around the world to help compare the economic well-being across countries and across time. As you might expect, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada all have large GDPs per capita (ranging from $43,000 to $56,000 in U.S. dollars). This is higher than many other countries, like South Korea (GDP per capita of $34,500 per capita), China ($8,000 per capita, although it has been growing at a quick pace), India ($1,600) and Mexico ($9,000). 1
