Emeritus Prof Christopher MayMar 18

Zack Polanski (Green Party of England & Wales) argues that GDP should be downgraded as a measure of political economic success; he is 'much more interested in growing people’s mental health, growing our public services, growing cohesion of our communities'....

While possibly a quixotic aim given the continuing centrality of GDP measure to political discourse, it *does* play to people's distrust of GDP as a plausible measure of their own economic experience(s).

#economics #politics
h/t FT

Donald RoyMar 18
Show threadJeffrey Rogers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
@ChrisMayLA6 I remember Julian Tudor Hart telling me that he’d never contributed to GDP as publicly funded services are counted as costs. His work on blood pressure saved, and is still saving, millions of lives. Marilyn Waring’s 1995 documentary gives an excellent critique of this method of accounting. Also, remember when our nationalised services gave much better service than we have now, and produced generations of youngsters with apprenticeships? Not counted in GDP. I’m with Polanski
Mar 18 at 7:14pmWeb
Show threadNorbersMar 18
@Jeffrey @ChrisMayLA6 You make a good point about the apprentices. A point I have frequently made myself. I worked in one of the nationalised industries and apprentices were taken on in several trades each year. Many of them will have eventually left for other industries where they arrived ready qualified. Too often private industries don’t want to invest in apprenticeships- they have to be subsidised by govt.
Show threadDonald RoyMar 18

@Jeffrey @ChrisMayLA6

Publicly provided goods and services - as distinct from transfers such as welfare payments - have counted as part of the production measure of GDP ( not to mention expenditure and income ) for as long I have been familiar with the subject - well over half a century. Where there was a problem was with conventions for measuring them - which often led to undervaluation though never nil value - and for including them where appropriate in measures of personal consumption.