an article which perhaps explains why sen. mccain says our economy is in good shape when so many millions think it isn't. an american economist is part of a small team working on factors in addition to GDP to calculate the economic health of france, and perhaps this means the time is coming here to do this as well. one significant factor mentioned here among others, not demonstrated in the gdp, are the big changes in distribution of all that money calculated in that figure. we all should be happy this is getting attention which may bring change.

Galbraith wrote about this years ago, that we were past the point of material need, that we could direct our economic energies to services and other quality of life activities, but the GDP measure has won out, to the ruin of American lives. Objectively, GDP has little or no relationship to quality of life, nor does productivity, in its simple form, although there are material, economic benefits related to the rate of GDP growth. Going further, one might likely find negatives related to GDP, such as more hours worked, but again, this has no benefit to quality of life in the developed world. Not much to say, other than just the facts, although many inobjective cases can be made for the necessity of GDP growth to people's lives.

For those intrigued by this article, I recommend a superior one by Robert H. Frank that appeared in the Times in March 2008. Frank approaches the topic more fairly, presenting both liberal and conservative viewpoints on the GDP. This more recent article on the same topic--seemingly sourced from telephone, email and/or Google--inquires: "If the U.S. economy is so bad, why is the gross domestic product rising?" Obesity is bad, the article states, and should result in a subtraction in the GDP (although the obesity industry adds $315 billion annually to the economy). The liberal viewpoint often notes that GDP and happiness do not correlate; the conservative viewpoint often obscures inflation to show that it does. Rather than ... More »

Interesting informative article on what GDP measures in today’s economy and what it does not measure with a good discussion on how cash distribution (money going to workers or executive pay) is not factored in the GDP, nor is environmental damage, health care issues, etc. This is a good article that left me wanting to know what the writers thought about other economic issues- like the national debt and trade deficit- not being part of the measure of the health of the economy as frequently reported by economists.

This article is very simple - the GDP is going very well and that could help the Republicans. So let's change the ground rules and dismiss the excellent performance of the economy. Other false statements- workers wages are not stagnating. The Times likes to measure household income but ignores the fact that households have a long term trend of getting smaller. Also average wages may appear depressed do to more illegal aliens, something the Times favors. The NYT is incredibly biased on this subject. Republicans have been in power so things must be bad. But, unfortunately for the Times at least the GDP is going great.