Originally Posted by jimmuter
Is it inefficient? If you look at that statistic in a vacuum it is, but then look at labor force sizes and GDP/capita. You could say the other countries convert labor into GDP a lot less efficiently than the U.S. It's not a matter of efficiency, it's a matter of the methods used for production. I'm not making any value judgements about using people vs. fuel to produce goods. I'm just pointing out that you can't see oil as the only input into GDP and draw conclusions about efficiency.
"Efficient" in the sense of converting oil to GDP. I think that's what I said. There are many definitions of "efficient," and I wouldn't pretend to understand what it means to have an efficient economy. And, I don't think I would like one, if we had one.