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This has been known since the idea was first conceived: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product#Limitations_at_introduction https://en.wikipedia.or
by nitwit005 4y ago
This has been known since the idea was first conceived: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product#Limitations_at_introduction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_domestic_product#Limitat...
The real issue is simply that, a lot of the things we want to convert to simple metrics can't be. Suppose I hand you a list of the exact rate each crime in a country was committed, and I ask you to convert that list to a single number, how would you do so? You could assign a weight to each crime, but how would you know which weights to use? What's the "true cost" of each crime?
Of course, in reality we won't know the real rate of any crime. We will have estimates, which are likely quite far from the truth.
- mjevans 4y agoHypothetical; somehow the total dollar impact of the divergence from an ideal timeline, including the cost of detection, correction, and the related punishments / restitution etc is totaled. For figures that are emotionally priceless the actuarial figures used in major disaster calculation will be used. However the crime example also isn't very useful. Crimes aren't discouraged based on money cost, but a cost that is emotional and related to maintaining order and stability for society.
- misnome 4y agoWhen I was first taught what GDP was at school we covered that it had limitations and biases, alongside other metrics that attempted to correct this. Apparently my high school teacher should have written a nature paper, instead.
- em500 4y agoSame here. These well known drawbacks of the GDP measure are covered in a standard Dutch VWO high school economics textbook (comparable to UK GCSE A-level).