If you’ve never read this kick-butt article which originally appeared in the October 1995 Atlantic Monthly, I strongly recommend it.
The thread “Okay, the economy is BOOMING! So they say. Tell me how” (
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1091397#1096957) here on GD made me think of this article.
Some choice quotes from the article:
“The GDP is simply a gross measure of market activity, of money changing hands. It makes no distinction whatsoever between the desirable and the undesirable, or costs and gain. On top of that, it looks only at the portion of reality that economists choose to acknowledge--the part involved in monetary transactions. The crucial economic functions performed in the household and volunteer sectors go entirely unreckoned. As a result the
GDP not only masks the breakdown of the social structure and the natural habitat upon which the economy--and life itself--ultimately depend; worse, it actually portrays such breakdown as economic gain.”“By the curious standard of the GDP, the nation's economic hero is a terminal cancer patient who is going through a costly divorce. The happiest event is an earthquake or a hurricane (or flood).”
“Growth can be social decline by another name. Divorce, for example, adds a small fortune in lawyers' bills, the need for second households, transportation and counseling for kids, and so on. Divorce lawyers alone take in probably several billion dollars a year, and possibly a good deal more. Divorce also provides a major boost for the real-estate industry.”
“The GDP totally ignores the distribution of income, for example, so that enormous gains at the top--as were made during the 1980s--appear as new bounty for all.”
http://hackvan.com/pub/stig/tools-of-exchange/if-the-GDP-is-up-then-why-is-America-down.html
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