Comments on Brightwork Article on the Problems with GDP

Table of Contents: Select a Link to be Taken to That Section

Executive Summary

This article contains comments from the articles on the problems with GDP.

Introduction

These comments are in response to the articles on the problem with GDP.

Comment #1: From Darren

Hi shaun ta very much.

Well the WHO use sens capabilities to account in the main instead of the GDP method, as for why nations and in particular liberal capitalist nations don’t use it is that they would have to give up a little more to have a balanced and less impoverished economic structure that punnshes those that have no voice.”the un also use the capabilities approach for the measure meant of there HDI, human index measurement but again national governments use differing mathematics and so these figures when used together possibly give a skewed result and one that is not the full picture , possibly it may be a way of not accounting in the widest range , in that it allows a break down of economic functioning while not revealing these functions.Heres a smidgen on capabilitiesThe Capability Approach (aka Capabilities Approach) began life in the 1980s as an approach to welfare economics. In this approach, Amartya Sen brought together a range of ideas that were hitherto excluded from (or inadequately formulated in) traditional approaches to the economics of welfare.Initially Sen argued for:* the importance of real freedoms in the assessment of a person’s advantage:

* individual differences in the ability to transform resources into valuable activities,
* the centrality of the distribution of welfare within society,
* the multi-variate nature of activities that give rise to happiness,
* against excessive materialism in the evaluation of human welfare.

One of the most important points is poverty and deprivation should not be looked at as being fixed in a functional or utilitarian manner but through the manner of capability deprivation that allows to opportunity to choice ( while it can be argued ( correctly ) that the availability to opportunity can be rotted in the inherent class structures and so the opportunity to choice may be imbalanced )In a fundamental sense is different as he left behind standard economic principles and sought a philosophical answer that wasn’t just based on abstract economical ideas.

Regards, Darran

Great comment Darran.

Any idea why this approach is so infrequently mentioned? Do you see it becoming used more frequently in the future? I have observed that bad statistics/measurements are used, even after their shortcomings are made apparent because they become “the standard.”

Comment #2: From Darren

Comment from Darren“Hi Shaun while I agree the use of GDP is a falsification of production and used to fudge figures.

It should be mentioned that there are other forms of measurement. Such as Amartya sen and his capabilities approach, while not 100% foolproof is a better measurement than GDP which as you suggest it malleable and can be bent to whatever you want it to say be it high or low employment”

Would You Like to Comment and Have it Added to This Thread?

Just provide your comment in the chatbox in the lower left of this screen.