Is GDP the correct way to measure nation wealth?

Discussion in 'Economics' started by nitro, Jan 1, 2013.

Should GDP be replaced with something more comprehensive?

  1. Yes. It is terribly lacking

    5 vote(s)
    55.6%
  2. No. It captures the essence of economic wealth

    1 vote(s)
    11.1%
  3. I don't know.

    2 vote(s)
    22.2%
  4. I don't care.

    1 vote(s)
    11.1%
  1. and these stories can go on all night long

    they will tell you about the exact chicken, and how much they sold it for

    and the man that bought it

    and what he bought bought it for

    and not a single story about an egg that got hatched
     
    #11     Jan 18, 2013
  2. and the funny thing is

    one of these men who showed up to buy a chicken

    drove up in a brand new hummer

    and paid top dollar

    they bought three of them

    he needed them so the witch doctor could use them to put a curse on one of his enemies

    (I know this, because my father in law is the witch doctor, business has been good since he moved into the city)

    so there is a lot of ways to measure wealth

    gdp may be one of them

    I guess it just depends on what it is exactly for you, you are trying to measure
     
    #12     Jan 18, 2013
  3. Ed Breen

    Ed Breen

    Oldtime, you are the best. You remind me of a freind of mine, retired, was a top lawyer, international lawyer, for Mecrk; tells a great story about negotiating a distribution deal with a witch doctor in Haiti.
     
    #13     Jan 18, 2013
  4. yeah well, the point is, all my money in the chicken farms is gone

    first thing, they figured out how to boil the chicken feed and eat it

    second thing is, they sold off all the chickens, mostly for religious purposes

    the rest they ate

    there is your consumption model

    not a single egg ever got hatched
     
    #14     Jan 19, 2013
  5. money is not the solution to all problems

    if it was, we could all make the world a better place
     
    #15     Jan 19, 2013
  6. my mistake was thinking if you could just teach people how capitalism works, then everything else would just take care of itself

    some people just have simply different values than I have

    and what I consider to be success, they consider it to be nothing
     
    #16     Jan 19, 2013
  7. "Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

    Same as it ever was...
     
    #17     Jan 19, 2013
  8. yeah

    coming from a goyam like you

    we know what you do with that pigmeat

    sausage gravy at Random's house Saturday morning
     
    #18     Jan 19, 2013
  9. as you know

    cornering a market can be very difficult

    sometimes you have to resort to religious superstition

    that's why we don't eat hogs

    we just couldn't corner them

    but rabbis still trade them
     
    #19     Jan 19, 2013
  10. Humpy

    Humpy

    Of course GDP isn't much of a measure.
    Wealth is a bit like happiness ! The more you look for it the more it eludes one.The USA is wealth obsessed and.. is bankrupt to the tune of 17 trillion.
    Take Madagascar which was better off before the greedy money grubbers destroyed it's natural and unique heritage of animals and plants. They have bulldozed the jungle and now there are rows of cassava money making plants as far as the eye can see. They ruined a once beautiful island and for what ? Figures in their computerised bank accounts.

    The sooner people get sensible the better. The Amazon and other jungles are already on the danger list. If the Brazilians for instance had an ounce of good sense they would blast the illegal loggers and their massive machines to kingdom come and good riddance.

    The only thing preserving the Congo jungles are the idiots are too busy fighting each other. Some people made fortunes supplying guns. Let's hope they destroy themselves sooner rather than later.
     
    #20     Jan 19, 2013