On Mar 20, 2013, at 2:36 PM, Shane Mage wrote: > GDP is in no way a measure of growth...
I would add another problem--not conceptual as such but political-- with GDP. Its definition of economic output excludes any economic activities that the ruling politicians define as "illegal," even though those activities are productive of goods and services that are economically no different from included activities (for instance, US National Accounts include prostitution services in Nevada but nowhere else). How grotesque this is can be shown by the fact that for decades the most valuable (in real utility, even more than in monetary, terms) crop in the biggest state of the union--California-- has been marijuana, yet that output has never been reflected in any way in an account of the gross output either of California or of the US. In contrast, the totally pernicious activity of prosecuting and imprisoning producers and consumers of the herb is portrayed as making up a significant part of "output!" > Shane Mage > > "All things are an equal exchange for fire and fire for all things, > as goods are for gold and gold for goods." > > Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr, 90 > > _______________________________________________ > 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
