[HN Gopher] GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
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       GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
        
       Author : simonfxr
       Score  : 41 points
       Date   : 2023-05-29 18:54 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.scientificamerican.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.scientificamerican.com)
        
       | bwanab wrote:
       | The trouble with that logic is that there's a huge correlation
       | between happiness (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-
       | rankings/happiest-...) and GDP per capita.
        
         | frankfrankfrank wrote:
         | This is a good example of correlation not being causation. GDP
         | is really just a measure of activity within a framework to
         | measure it. It has nothing constructive to say about the real
         | value of the activity, just that it is happening as measured in
         | a currency.
         | 
         | Besides, the inventor of GDP warned against using it as a
         | measure for policy making, but as with many things in human
         | affairs, oversimplified things that give an impression that
         | helps manipulative people is just run with, regardless of the
         | insanity of it.
         | 
         | BMI is another good example of not only a useless, but even
         | more damaging and dumb fake metric.
        
           | i-use-nixos-btw wrote:
           | There is no good measure for policy making. Goodhart and all
           | that.
           | 
           | But it does serve as an often-indirect measure, as part of a
           | plethora of other measures, to simply explore the effects of
           | policy.
           | 
           | I'm not aware of policy that focuses on improving GDP per se
           | (not saying there isn't any, Im just not that tuned into
           | politics) but I am aware of people criticising their
           | government when GDP has dropped after a major change. That's
           | the appropriate use, though.
        
         | dataviz1000 wrote:
         | There have been several studies on this. For example this new
         | article. [0]
         | 
         | [0] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/money-happiness-study-daniel-
         | ka...
        
       | andrei_says_ wrote:
       | The Gross National Happiness index of Bhutan has been in place
       | for 15 years. Maybe there's something we can borrow from there.
       | 
       | Gross National Happiness (GNH), sometimes called Gross Domestic
       | Happiness (GDH), is a philosophy that guides the government of
       | Bhutan. It includes an index which is used to measure the
       | collective happiness and well-being of a population. Gross
       | National Happiness Index is instituted as the goal of the
       | government of Bhutan in the Constitution of Bhutan, enacted on 18
       | July 2008.
       | 
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness
        
         | frankfrankfrank wrote:
         | It is an interesting phenomenon that people tend to just
         | swallow, hook, line, sinker, rod and reel some obscure measure
         | and metric or ranking as if it's some kind of law of physics.
        
       | supportengineer wrote:
       | What matters is spending time with your loved ones. And it is
       | measured in hours or days.
        
         | avmich wrote:
         | Not the only thing that matters? Ability to make useful actions
         | - heal, entertain, teach etc. - they all imply resource
         | spending, in addition to time, so shouldn't it be reflected?
        
         | naet wrote:
         | A healthy economy is needed for people to be able to spend time
         | with loved ones. People who have to work double shifts or can't
         | make ends meet end up missing out on a lot of family time.
        
           | xbpx wrote:
           | GDP doesn't measure a healthy economy however. It measures
           | aggregate production which can be owned by a small minority
           | of extremely wealthy asset holders while everyone else needs
           | to work double shifts. I'd want a measure of inequality in
           | whatever function is used to measure happiness.
        
       | 10g1k wrote:
       | Australia tracks four or five different GDP calculations, then
       | uses the average result as the GDP they report to everyone.
       | 
       | Every other country uses different calculations for GDP.
       | 
       | It is not a reliable indicator of anything if everyone is using
       | different calculations.
        
       | HyperSane wrote:
       | GDP adjusted by Gini coefficient would be a better measure. A
       | massive GDP overly concentrated in the top 1% of the population
       | doesn't improve the lives of the rest of the population.
        
       | FredPret wrote:
       | With GDP it's better to have it and not need it
        
       | pyuser583 wrote:
       | I live near a military base that serves as a sorting facility for
       | refugees.
       | 
       | This is mildly beneficial to our GDP. It's also beneficial to the
       | refugees. Win-win.
       | 
       | But whenever refugees show up, aggregate happiness certainly
       | suffers.
        
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