If 21st-century Republicans have an idol, a graven image we collectively worship, it is Gross Domestic Product. All discussion about the flourishing of our nation is reduced to GDP, and its increase is seen as an ironclad refutation of anyone who questions whether America is, in fact, flourishing. But GDP, as today calculated, is largely fake, disconnected from the actual production of value. Worse, flourishing-as-quantity is a destructive way to view our society. It was once commonplace that the value of very many things, a mother’s love or a scarlet sunset, was immense, but unmeasurable. We have forgotten this, to our detriment. To truly make America great again, a crucial first step is dethroning GDP as a measure of our greatness.
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Six percent of GDP, for example, is nonexistent rent payments imputed as made by homeowners living in their own houses, which means GDP rises as housing prices rise, even though no value is being created at any point.
ReplyDeleteThis article has a lot to unpack and I'm not going to try but the above statement is kinda weird, .. If you don't actually own your home then you are paying rent. It might be disguised as a mortgage but it's still rent with the benefits of having to maintain it and pay property taxes on it...
JD