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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Moominoid who wrote (37900)	8/15/2005 3:11:12 PM
From: GraceZ	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

The answers to a lot of these questions are here (though most SI-ers don't believe any of this): I think the average SIer would prefer some ridiculous measurement like the Genuine Progress Indicator (look it up in Wikapedia if you want a good laugh) to the GDP which they know is bogus even though they can't even tell you how it is calculated, even on the most basic level. Any type of national accounting has to change with the times and is a less than perfect measure. There are things that bother me about how the GDP is calculated. Like interest paid, sometimes it's a transfer which is not included in GDP, but then if it is paid to a financial firm it is. If I fix up an old car and sell it to you, that extra amount I get isn't included in the GDP and neither is a fixed up old house, the value added is lost, only the cost of materials would be counted in GDP which could be small in comparison to the subsequent rise in sale price. Selling an appreciated asset adds nothing to GDP only the transaction fees involved with the sale are products. The line between what is a good and what is a service isn't nearly as clear as it used to be. Many goods include a level of service and many services are in fact goods. In some classifications what I do is manufacture and in other classifications I provide a service. I try to take the manufacturing exemption wherever it is available (many states and municipalities provide tax breaks and tax incentives to manufacturers), so I have a vested interest in being called a manufacturer as do many other industries that skirt the line between manufacturing and service.