this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2025
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I'd argue even PPP doesn't paint the whole picture. Turns out what really matters is industrial strength and self sufficiency.
What’s your preferred method of determining industrial strength? Russia’s PPP is higher than their relative manufacturing output by value added or cost of goods, and they only have half the industrial CO2 output of the US. I’m not arguing one way or the other, I’m not especially familiar with these stats and such so I’m just curious about the apparent discrepancy.
PPP is good for measuring purchasing power domestically, but you can still have high purchasing power without having a strong industry. I find steel production is a good proxy to look at. The US produces around 80 million tons while Russia 70 million tons. In terms of military production, Russia is far ahead in key areas like artillery shell production pumping out 3x as many as the entire west combined. Russia also exports more raw materials by value. I'd argue these are the two main factors in terms of the war. Russia is able to hold its own in terms of military production and their massive commodity exports give them a lot of geopolitical leverage.