Rethinking GDP: Beyond Economic Measures of Prosperity
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World governments believe that only one statistic, the measure of gross domestic product (GDP) can really show whether things seem to be getting better or worse. GDP is an index of a country’s entire economic output – a tally of manufacturers’ shipments, farmers’ harvests, retail sales and construction spending. It compresses the immensity of a national economy into a single data point of surpassing density. Many have depended on it for so long. “If you want to know why GDP matters, you can just put yourself back in the 1930 period, where we had no idea what was happening to our economy,” said William Nordhaus, a Yale economist. “There were people then who said things were fine and others who said things weren’t fine. But we had no comprehensive measures.”
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But academics and gadflies have always been critical of the measure, suggesting that it is an inaccurate gauge of prosperity. It has failed to capture the well-being of a 20th-century society and has skewed global political objectives toward the single-minded pursuit of economic growth.. Left unanswered, however, is the question of which indicators are suitable replacements for GDP.
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Criticisms of GDP go deeper than just its misuse by politicians. Consider, the lives of two people – High-GDP Man and Low-GDP Man. High-GDP Man has a long commute to work in an automobile that gets poor gas mileage (he spends more on fuel). The morning stress is not too good for his car or his cardiovascular health (which need expensive treatment). He works hard, spends hard. He pays for a babysitter and a housekeeper because there is no time for housework..
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But these activities keep Low-GDP Man busy. By economic measures, there’s no doubt High-GDP Man is superior. His salary is higher, his expenditures are greater, his economic activity is more robust.. What we can’t really say is whether his life is any better. There seem to be subtle indications that various “goods” that High-GDP Man consumes should be characterized as “bads.” Given all the medical tests, his health care expenditures are excessive.. And we don’t know if High-GDP Man is living beyond his means, so we can’t predict his future quality of life.