On Thu, 2008-06-19 at 06:26 -0700, Jim Devine wrote:
> in a (limited) defense of GDP, no-one would pay $100 simply to have a
> question answered. Getting the answer has to be valuable to the asker
> in some way. (Say, Leonardo, what mistake am I making in trying to
> paint this ceiling? the paint keeps dripping off.) So the people in
> the story have to be doing something valuable for each other (and
> least from their perspectives).
Yes of course my example is kinda stupid but it helps
people visualize real shortcomings of the measure.
The more a country does "stupid" things, the bigger its GDP is. USA paid
advertisment is 2% of GDP, world average 1%, USA direct litigation cost
2% of GDP, with estimated indirect effects at 6% of GDP, polluting
then litigating and cleaning, unhealthy food then health care.
All of these are really money running quickly in closed circles with
really small "value" but big GDP impact.
BTW, I've read somewhere than when a computer is bought for
$1000 in the USA it is counted as much more than $1000
in USA GDP ("hedonic GDP") and that this doesn't happen
in other countries. Anyone knows wether it's true or
false and a definitive reference on this?
Thanks in advance,
Laurent
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