Re: “Japan has had a negative birth rate for more than 10 years. And look at what’s happened to their GDP.”
Your bar chart is worse than useless - it is deliberately deceptive.
First - it starts in 2010. What was Japan’s GDP during the 2008-2009 Great Recession?
Second - what currency and what adjustments are represented?
Third - the bars are WILDLY out of proportion. 6203 is the highest bar. 4389 is the lowest. 6203 is 42% higher than 4389.
However - the bar for 6203 is almost 400% higher than the bar for 4389!
I will respond to the rest of your post later - heading out the door.
It's the first one I came across and it's from Trading Economics.
Their data is from the World Bank and it's in current USD.
Not sure why you think they're conspiring to deceive you or to what end, but whatever.
What was Japans GDP during the 2008-2009 Great Recession?
$5.04B in 2008 and $5.2B in 2009. Both higher than the $4.98B in 2018 (all current USD).
Third - the bars are WILDLY out of proportion. 6203 is the highest bar. 4389 is the lowest. 6203 is 42% higher than 4389.
Good Lord.
Your math would make sense if the Y axis started at zero, but as you can see it starts at 4000. The proportions are correct.