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But that version of productivity takes into account only the items that have a direct impact on the bottom line. Externalities - such as cutting corners on safety, emitting noxious but unregulated pollutants, etc. - apparently do not go into productivity. Which makes "productivity increase" something of a misnomer when applied to a society as a whole, which frequently happens in public discourse.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Aug 7th, 2008 at 12:22:12 PM EST
[ Parent ]
But that version of productivity takes into account only the items that have a direct impact on the bottom line.

But measuring what you have to measure to track the tug of war in the division of national income between labor and non-labor claimants on income is not responsible for that confusion.

Being externalities, the externalities do not play the same role in that tug of war over the money flows.

The responsibility for the abuse of the measure lies with those who abuse the measure. Some of the blame must go to traditional marginalist economists who persist in treating "real" GDP as if it was some underlying quantity rather than an artifact ... but even if the profession has clean hands, there would still be voices in the public discourse who would persist in misusing measures in pursuit of their own interests.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Thu Aug 7th, 2008 at 11:36:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
True, but then again that's also the case for such things as unemployment figures - they do say something meaningful; the meaningful things they say, however, are rarely the same as the things various political groups claim to think that they say.

- Jake

If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Aug 8th, 2008 at 10:04:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
... the politicization of the measures will take place so long as the measures are produced ...

... but if the measures are not produced, then people will just make shit up.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Fri Aug 8th, 2008 at 10:30:12 AM EST
[ Parent ]

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