GDP does not measure the value of growing a garden and cooking your own food, but it does measure what you spend on groceries and at restaurants.

GDP does not measure the value of raising a child, but it does measure what is spent on child care.

GDP does not measure the value of being healthy, but it does measure what is spent on medical treatments.

GDP is all the state can measure and so its actions attempt to maximize only what it can measure.

Remain unmeasurable.

#economics #grownostr #growth

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If you haven’t read it already, I think you might enjoy “Seeing Like a State” by James C Scott.

He talks about being “illegible” to the state. That’s stuck with me in my dealings with govt

I haven’t, thank you for the recommendation. 🖖

GDP measures the degree of a given Government level of bullshitness

🤣 It’s definitely an imperfect measurement that is “biased” against home production because no money changes hands. It might be the very healthiest Normal natural thing to do but it’s not counted as a good or a service, an income, or an expenditure. It’s invisible, makes you wonder when has the political to “juice” the economy ever negatively impacted their citizens by pushing human activity from the unmeasured column to the measured column and suddenly “measuring” the activity.