What I'm arguing, following Fisher, Kuznets and Hueting is fundamentally different from the well-being vs. production issue. I'm saying that the issue of double counting challenges the credibility of NIPA as a measure of *production*. The well-being question is, "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a cow have?" The double counting question is, "If you count some of the legs twice, how many legs does a cow have?"
On Wed, Mar 20, 2013 at 3:14 AM, Max Sawicky <[email protected]> wrote: > In my limited reading about the accounts, the premise is that they are a > measure of production over a given period of time, not progress or > well-being. As a measure of production, in recent years there has been some > effort to grapple with non-market amenities in the so-called 'green > accounts,' published as an addendum and not integrated into the official > Account. > > I'm of course aware of how often GDP is cited as an indicator of progress. > > > > > On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 9:28 PM, Tom Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > >> The last time I saw Jonathan Rowe was in October, 2010. I was on a >> writer's retreat at the Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes, California and Jonathan >> dropped by to borrow the pick-up truck. We got into one of those intense >> conversations you can only have with someone who has cared and thought long >> and deep about the things you have cared and thought long and deep about. >> >> Jonathan died on March 20th of the following year. On a Saturday he came >> home from the gym with a fever. The fever got worse so he went the >> hospital. Sunday morning he died. >> >> Last week, when I heard that Jonathan's book, *Our Common >> Wealth<http://jonathanrowe.org/common-wealth> >> *, was out, I ordered a copy right away. Then I searched around on the >> web and pinched a galley proof so I wouldn't have to wait for the shipping. >> I was especially eager to read Chapter 12, "Accounting for Common Wealth" >> and Chapter 17, "Reallocating Time." >> >> Back in 1995 Jonathan was one of the co-authors of an *Atlantic Monthly* >> article, "If the GDP is up, Why is America >> Down,"<http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/ecbig/gdp.htm> a >> great riff on the title of Richard Fariña's novel, *Been Down So Long, >> It Looks Like Up To Me*. I don't usually hoard old magazines – in fact, >> I rarely even buy magazines. But I still have that October 1995 issue of >> the *Atlantic*. >> >> Jonathan's article explained a lot of what's wrong with the economy and >> what's wrong with economics: "Once you start asking 'what' as well as 'how >> much' -- that is, about quality instead of just quantity -- the premise of >> the national accounts as an indicator of progress begins to disintegrate, >> and along with it much of the conventional economic reasoning on which >> those accounts are based." >> >> Read more... >> http://econospeak.blogspot.ca/2013/03/income-growth-and-double-counting.html#more >> >> _______________________________________________ >> pen-l mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >> >> > > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > > -- Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman)
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