Gross domestic product is a misleading measure of national success (2014)

Post by largepeepee » Tue, Nov 01, 2022, 3:19 AM UTC

CyanBird wrote: post #208

largepeepee wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boris and Jacob strike me as politicians that understand how to play the UK system masterfully. Doubt either of them are the solution for the country but neither is anyone in labour. The corruption precedes them by centuries, and anyone who tries to fix things - like remove the special status of the City of London now will get a shorten career. Kinda like in the US to even have a chance to be the presidential candida…

> like remove the special status of the City of London For sure, because it would sink the country, these days the UK is more dependent on the city than the city is on the UK

Post by fulafel » Tue, Nov 01, 2022, 3:25 AM UTC

zsz wrote: post #164

fleddr wrote: post #75

"The philosopher John Stuart Mill noted more than 200 years ago that, once decent living standards were assured, human efforts should be directed to the pursuit of social and moral progress and the increase of leisure, not the competitive struggle for material wealth" Yes, we took the wrong turn. Most people are subjected to a life long rat race of economic relevance/volatility where most of their waking hours are sp…

Wrong turn? Rat race? Compared to what? Your ancestors 200 years ago were malnourished, working the fields all day to eke out a miserable existence, never enjoying a single luxury in life. They didn't know how to read or write, and in any case wouldn't have had time for such luxurious activities. Human progress has brought us to the point where we have the free time to complain about how disadvantaged we are and how…

Post by fulafel » Tue, Nov 01, 2022, 3:33 AM UTC

yucky wrote: post #200

glial wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Curious to know your definition of freedom, and what system of government it is compatible with.

If there are no systems of government compatible with freedom, does that indicate there is a problem with the idea of freedom or a problem with the idea of government?

Post by mxkopy » Tue, Nov 01, 2022, 3:46 AM UTC

paxys wrote: post #158

mxkopy wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A self-sufficient community would not have a GDP of 0 because they would still have transactions among themselves. Perfect self-sufficiency would actually generate a very high GDP number because of how diverse and specialized the community would have to be to take care of itself. And all this is assuming that the community uses money. A self sufficient community would have 0 GDP iff no money was exchanged.

That doesn't matter. Value was still exchanged, and can be measured.

Post by mc32 » Tue, Nov 01, 2022, 3:53 AM UTC

chiefalchemist wrote: post #168

lkrubner wrote: post #58

Robert Kennedy, on the campaign trail in 1968: "Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising…

And shortly thereafter, he was assassinated. Another historical "fun fact", is that MLK wasn't assassinated while pushing for civil rights. He was killed once he shifted his focus to financial injustice and wealth inequality. Two might not be a pattern, but it's no accident these historical figures were both challenging the deep pockets status quo and they both died prematurely.