Hey, Big Number, Make Room for the Rest of Us

For 75 years, the gross domestic product has been the premier means of measuring America's economic vitality. It is a celebrity among statistics, a giant calculator strutting about adding up every bit of paid activity in the 50 states. The annual sum, the famous $14 trillion economy, marks the United States as the world's most prosperous nation -- measured in cash.

In the absence of any statistic of comparable cachet, however, the G.D.P. is ... Full Story »

Posted by Leo Romero

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Review

James Igoe
4.9
by James Igoe - Oct. 1, 2008

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.

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