Context
We heard today that the Christchurch rebuild will be more expensive, by sagans of dollars, than previously computed.
3News attempted to provide some context for the cost of the rebuild, saying it was about the “same as the GDP of Kuwait or Vietnam.“(1:20) The problem is that most of us have less understanding of the GDP of Kuwait or Vietnam than of $40 billion, so this isn’t terribly helpful.
In fact, the lack of understanding appears to extend to 3News, since in fact the GDP of Kuwait and Vietnam are about US$175 billion and US$125 billion, not NZ$40 billion. The government budget (not GDP) in Vietnam is roughly NZ$40 billon, but I don’t know where the Kuwait figure comes from.
Thomas Lumley (@tslumley) is Professor of Biostatistics at the University of Auckland. His research interests include semiparametric models, survey sampling, statistical computing, foundations of statistics, and whatever methodological problems his medical collaborators come up with. He also blogs at Biased and Inefficient See all posts by Thomas Lumley »
Yes, I noted that and immediately doubted the comparison.
Really, its quite difficult to make a meaningful comparison to any country or indeed to costs in our own without becoming tedious with detail.
Fortunately TV3 soldiered on and eventually we learned it was an additional cost of maybe several billion and well within out ability to cope.
JC
12 years ago