/biz/ - Business & Finance

>>25229044
What's worst is that it's putting an unimaginable strain on the planet and our finite resources as well as the average Joe. GDP doesn't view many of the "real life losses" as losses at all. On the contrary, many of these "real life losses" are viewed as gains on the GDP! For example: medical bills; property damage; cleaning up environmental damage; loss of resources; loss of free time and freedom; etc. would be thought of as losses on a personal level, or at least the family level or the local community level. But ALL of these things benefit the GDP and the politicians and economists cheer on as everything seems to be going well while in reality the nation declines.

I read an amazing, eye-opening article from 1995 discussing these issues a day or two ago. The article suggests a new way to look at progress and economic growth, a new indicator called "Genuine Progress Indicator", GPI, that takes these losses into account and indicates that (surprise surprise) America has been declining since the 1970's. I'll link the article here, it spoke to me and really affected me a lot.
https://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/politics/ecbig/gdp.htm