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Indeed. You can measure boat and rail traffic, but what about the digital economy? http://www.aei.org/publication/its-official-a-lost-decade-for-the-us-econom
by tosseraccount 11y ago
Indeed. You can measure boat and rail traffic, but what about the digital economy?
http://www.aei.org/publication/its-official-a-lost-decade-for-the-us-economy/ http://www.aei.org/publication/its-official-a-lost-decade-fo... :
"One potential explanation that reconciles these observations is that structural changes in the US economy may have resulted in a statistical understatement of real GDP growth. There are several possible areas of concern, but the rapid growth of software and digital content—where quality-adjusted prices and real output are much harder to measure than in most other sectors—seems particularly important."
- ThomPete 11y agoWhich is all the more reason to treat technology not as an externality as it's being done now but as an integral part of GDP.
- themartorana 11y agoAt least now, yes. It was certainly an odd market before, somewhat segregated from other industries, but now technology is the driver behind all sorts of market moves - from lower prices to lower costs and higher profit margins to being part of almost every advantage one competitor gains over another. I think people imagine "technology" is only Uber et al and can still be segregated into its own market, but some of the most interesting tech developments and software engineering are happening far from the Silicon Valley app-culture.
- ThomPete 11y agoHmm. I would buy that it wasn't easy to include it into economic models but it wasn't impossible and for a long time it's been an important factor to understand economy. Right now it's practically impossible to say anything relevant about the economy without because we don't have a model that includes technology.