Being a little bit more constructive, one can picture the economy as a network with a balance sheet at each node and cash flows on the links. The net of the cash flows at each node gives you the income statement for that node, and the sum total of all the unsigned cash flows on the links give you "national" income.

What's wrong with that picture or how do actual accounting and actual national accounting differ from it?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan