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
yes, I used to have that quote on a powerpoint slide early on in my lecture on how to measure economic activity....
Although in Keynesian terms not really completely true - the multiplier effect of the money spent first on demolition & then the following funds spent on rebuilding would all flow outwards into the economy - hence Keynes notion that counter-cyclic economic policy might be just dig big holes & fill them in, provided it was paid employees doing it - the multiplier produces economic effects beyond the actual practical action beef paid for....
Indeed; the activity itself is not neutral in effect (as you rightly point out), but the multiplier does mean to some extent the cost(s) are nitrated more widely, but yes the valuing if infrastructure is key, which (to be fair to Rachel Reeves) is what the new version of the fiscal rules is approaching as a logic
Emeritus Prof Christopher May
Just Tom... 🐁
Kim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷