20 individual cars create much more GDP than 20 people using a bike.
People buying health insurance is good for GDP.
If drug prices increase by +30% next year, it’s very positive for GDP.
I went to the hospital and now I have $1000000 in medical bills. But, at least GDP is higher!
The level of cope in these comments is about to be insane
So what?
GDP is a super-sucky measure of economics and says nothing about quality of life or longterm promise that our grandkids will also have the same (or better) quality of life. The sooner we stop talking about GDP the better off everyone will be.
A world with unipolar concentration of wealth and power is not good for anyone.
History has time and again proved that such a system eventually leads to self destruction.
While I suspect it will be downvoted sufficiently to impair any serious visibility on this sub, I’m glad Le Monde penned this article and I’m glad you posted it. I recall when a [similar article](https://www.ft.com/content/80ace07f-3acb-40cb-9960-8bb4a44fd8d9) from FT was posted here a few months ago. The popular reaction here was exactly as Leparmentier describes in this article:
> [discussion of] this topic is muted in France – immediately met with counter-arguments about life expectancy, junk food, inequality, etc.
It’s tempting to be smug and to gloat that Europe is reaping the harvest of its habit of dismissing its less progressive counterpart across the pond, but in today’s world there’s really no space left for schadenfreude. If Europe is stagnating, a whole wing of the liberal world is weakened. If we want to win a protracted struggle in Ukraine, if we want to rebuild that country once (or if) we’ve won, and if we want to continue to provide the world with solid evidence that democracy *does* pay, we will need a Europe that remains economically vibrant and that can still deliver for its citizens. This lack of growth and competitive energy will seriously threaten that prospect.
In contrast to other commentators, I do think that GDP is a very good measure. However, I believe that only time will tell if Europe will be able to close the gap *to some extent* or will permanently fall behind. I still think that Europe’s economy is better suited for the diffusion phase of innovation, but of course there are still demographics and energy dependency which create lots of drag. And of course some of its culture is rather business-unfriendly, but here I am not sure if it’s just a political facade, at least that’s my experience from Germany.
The difference goes to 0 once you factor in interest.
8 comments
20 individual cars create much more GDP than 20 people using a bike.
People buying health insurance is good for GDP.
If drug prices increase by +30% next year, it’s very positive for GDP.
I went to the hospital and now I have $1000000 in medical bills. But, at least GDP is higher!
The level of cope in these comments is about to be insane
So what?
GDP is a super-sucky measure of economics and says nothing about quality of life or longterm promise that our grandkids will also have the same (or better) quality of life. The sooner we stop talking about GDP the better off everyone will be.
There are various efforts to create a better measure of economic activity. I’m partial to this one. [https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/26/well-being-these-countries-are-looking-beyond-gdp-and-economic-growth.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/26/well-being-these-countries-are-looking-beyond-gdp-and-economic-growth.html)
A world with unipolar concentration of wealth and power is not good for anyone.
History has time and again proved that such a system eventually leads to self destruction.
While I suspect it will be downvoted sufficiently to impair any serious visibility on this sub, I’m glad Le Monde penned this article and I’m glad you posted it. I recall when a [similar article](https://www.ft.com/content/80ace07f-3acb-40cb-9960-8bb4a44fd8d9) from FT was posted here a few months ago. The popular reaction here was exactly as Leparmentier describes in this article:
> [discussion of] this topic is muted in France – immediately met with counter-arguments about life expectancy, junk food, inequality, etc.
It’s tempting to be smug and to gloat that Europe is reaping the harvest of its habit of dismissing its less progressive counterpart across the pond, but in today’s world there’s really no space left for schadenfreude. If Europe is stagnating, a whole wing of the liberal world is weakened. If we want to win a protracted struggle in Ukraine, if we want to rebuild that country once (or if) we’ve won, and if we want to continue to provide the world with solid evidence that democracy *does* pay, we will need a Europe that remains economically vibrant and that can still deliver for its citizens. This lack of growth and competitive energy will seriously threaten that prospect.
In contrast to other commentators, I do think that GDP is a very good measure. However, I believe that only time will tell if Europe will be able to close the gap *to some extent* or will permanently fall behind. I still think that Europe’s economy is better suited for the diffusion phase of innovation, but of course there are still demographics and energy dependency which create lots of drag. And of course some of its culture is rather business-unfriendly, but here I am not sure if it’s just a political facade, at least that’s my experience from Germany.
The difference goes to 0 once you factor in interest.