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AJ Sadauskas

When a car is repaired after a crash, the GDP goes up.

When a fruit or vegetable is grown only to be thrown out by a supermarket as food waste, the GDP goes up.

When you replace a phone that still works because of planned obsolescence, the GDP goes up.

When you throw out a perfectly good coat because it's no longer fashionable, and buy a new one in this season's style, the GDP goes up.

When a bridge has to be replaced because it wasn't built right, the GDP goes up.

When a piece of packaging is manufactured only to be thrown away straight away, the GDP goes up.

When a site needs to be decontaminated because chemicals weren't stored correctly, the GDP goes up.

In each case, society has no more usable wealth than it would have had if the car didn't crash, the vegetable wasn't grown, the phone wasn't replaced, the old coat was still being worn, there was less packaging, or the chemicals were stored correctly. Yet the GDP goes up.

Meanwhile, most of the wealth that is generated ends up in the top one percent's pockets.

The truth is that GDP isn't a useful measurement. It's just a convenient one.

#economics #politics #gdp #auspol #ukpol

10 Feb 2023 at 9:22 | Open on aus.social
10 comments
Wade Roberts

@ajsadauskas economics is the religion that occupies the void in society vacated after the enlightenment.

Imaginary concepts conjured by the ruling class, protected from scrutiny, and imposed upon the masses.

Mythology was replaced with selective mathematics and finance.

Cathedrals replaced with banks.

Churches replaced with financial institutions.

God replaced with GDP.

10 Feb 2023 at 10:53 | Open on aus.social
Daniel Lakeland

@ajsadauskas
GDP is useful, but highly flawed. I'd certainly want to live in a country with $50000 GDP/Capita over one with $1000. But it's entirely possible for a country with $20000 to be a generally better place to live than that $50000 example.

10 Feb 2023 at 13:59 | Open on mastodon.sdf.org
davidstalane

@ajsadauskas Degrowth won't catch on for a while

10 Feb 2023 at 14:05 | Open on mastodon.social
Ben Curthoys
Cleopatra

@bencurthoys @ajsadauskas
Another old example is a man marrying his housekeeper: the amount of labor stays the same, but there is less salary shoved around.

GDP isn't entirely useless, but the economy (let alone people's lives) cannot possibly be summed up by 1 number.

10 Feb 2023 at 15:24 | Open on c.im
DELETED

@ajsadauskas I've wondered before what might happen if we collectively decided to stop measuring GDP one day.

In the absence of that metric to measure, compare against, and target - how might we measure success instead?

Reported well-being, ecological health, reduced yearly production of waste? Plenty of possibilities.

10 Feb 2023 at 15:16 | Open on toot.site
Cleopatra

@AFriendlyBeagle @ajsadauskas
There are other (financial) measures such as debt compared to posesions or including the value of volunteer and household work.
But the USA and EU aren't doing so great on many of these alternative metrics, so uh....

10 Feb 2023 at 15:17 | Open on c.im
Kathleen Fuller, PhD

@ajsadauskas The Genuine Progress Index is a better measure. It counters the fact that the US (and most other economies) are based on cheap, free, or enslaved labor. on.mentza.com/circles/53223

10 Feb 2023 at 15:49 | Open on mstdn.social
Stoneface Vimes

@ajsadauskas in the eighties I heard the expression "taking in each others washing". The idea that we all set up laundries, and then wash each others clothes. We all charge a fee to do it, and pay a fee to have our own washing done. But there's no actual benefit because it just sends it round and round in circles.

10 Feb 2023 at 16:18 | Open on c.im
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