Is It Time to Abandon GDP?

Edward Campanella.

- by Robert McLean

A friend once employed the aphorism “That what gets measured, gets done” to legitimize a business decision.

He was, of course correct, particularly if aligned with present neo-liberal values and how best current circumstances could be exploited, and that observation was, at the time, the intention.

Writing about the complexities of economic systems and how their effectiveness is measured, economist Edoardo Campanella, asks why do we continue to rely on gross domestic product (GDP) as our primary welfare indicator?

Using the GDP to measure the success of the country is mischievous in the extreme, it appears to favour what some describe as “the big end of town”, and even seems to be enhanced by the disruptive forces of climate change and the destructive weather events now appearing with regularity around the world.

The massive amounts spent, for argument’s sake, to help New York City recover from Hurricane Sandy enhances the country’s GDP for it measures only money spent and does not delineate between good and bad.

Read Project Syndicate story – “Is It Time to Abandon GDP?”