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It’s probably the closest thing we have to a North Star metric when evaluating a country. Everything that people desire is underpinned by GDP, and it isn’t part
by hyko 7y ago
It’s probably the closest thing we have to a North Star metric when evaluating a country. Everything that people desire is underpinned by GDP, and it isn’t particularly high anywhere on Earth.
- icebraining 7y ago> Everything that people desire is underpinned by GDP That's a very extreme position. People desire more than what can be bought at the market. https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/24/robert-kennedy-gdp https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/may/24/robert...
- hyko 7y agoTrue, but they can realise those desires more easily if they’re available at the market. In fact it’s hard to imagine an area of human interest or endeavour that is not supported by the activities measured by GDP in some way. I’m not saying it’s the only metric we should attend to, or even that it’s a perfect economic metric, but rather that it’s a reasonable headline metric to use. It is only one number, so it cannot express the whole reality of life within a country; but it can convey some sense of the relative opportunities for that country. There is a meaningful and quantifiable difference between living in an economy with a GDP of $45 million (GDP per capita $3,566) and $20 trillion (GDP per capita $64,767).