macavity,
Re: that was one out of left field. What do you mean?
Let me try to explain myself. Basically, GDP is a measure of all goods and services produced within the country.
To show how this is an absurd measure of national well being, we need look no further than how GDP measures medical expense and the real impact of the same.
Thus, a completely useless medical test which is ordered up by a doctor who is panicked about the prospects of malpractice insurance is counted as a credit in the GDP ledger. The net result is that there is absolutely no economic benefit to the general public, but there is a transfer of wealth between the general public and a very tiny and very privileged elite of medical professionals who are, in a very real sense, a parasitical force on the public.
In the instance of a cancer diagnosis, some experts in the field of oncology have estimated that the net addition to the U.S. GDP for each positive diagnosis is about $250,000.
This represents the ongoing cost of the panoply of treatments applied today such as surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy and (I just found out yesterday) the shot that is now prescribed post-chemotherapy to counteract its poisonous and anti-immunological effects and which costs $6,000 per injection for the uninsured! Of course, your HMO will get a substantial discount.
So, by the peculiar logic of GDP accountancy, the sicker the American society gets, over all, the greater the boost to GDP! Surely a system that measures value on this basis is in need of serious re-thinking.
As indeed some have done. This new measure is called the GNH or Gross National Happiness measure:
bhutanstudies.org.bt
Brief Intro:
africanews.com
Orville Schell Commentary:
pbs.org
Quality of Life Indicators:
oneworld.net
Quote of Note:
“Organized civil society will no longer have to accept the agenda set by government or the press,” said Ricardo Young, chairman of the Instituto Ethos.
Cheerio! Ray :) |
