Humans are only as good at measuring as the ruler they use. The Growth Delusion: Wealth, Poverty, and the Well-Being of Nations, by David Pilling, aptly illustrates this. Piling shows us just how arbitrary the Gross Domestic Product is as a measure of a country’s wealth. GDP, as a ruler, is a blunt , amoral, and selective instrument. It is predicated on continued growth. Growth at any cost.
This is an important book. Economists have become powerful gurus in our world, throwing around their concepts and explanatory tools as if they sprung from apriori from the head of Athena. They did not; GDP is a construct – and as such, wide open to criticism by those who do not have a stake in keeping it sacrosanct.
This is an important book. Economists have become powerful gurus in our world, throwing around their concepts and explanatory tools as if they sprung from apriori from the head of Athena. They did not; GDP is a construct – and as such, wide open to criticism by those who do not have a stake in keeping it sacrosanct.
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