The desk at which this is being written is located in the heart of an economics department, surrounded by academics who are routinely called onto radio stations and TV channels to assess the impact of a particular policy on Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The prevalence of the focus on GDP – compared to the impact a policy might have on poverty (or inequality or decent jobs or carbon emissions) – illustrates how the GDP prism overrides so many other concerns. GDP is the yardstick by which political decisions are scrutinised and the league table by which countries compare themselves.
Its dominance as the prevailing measure of progress goes against decades of evidence that shows that GDP includes lots of things that most people would deem problematic, plus countless examples of how GDP entirely ignores aspects of life that most people would deem important.
GDP counts money changing hands via spending in the formal, marketised economy (such as consumers and governments). As Jorgen Norgaard explains: “much of the growth in GDP over the last years can be ascribed to pulling activities like child care, health care, cooking, entertainment, maintaining houses…from the non-paid amateur economy into the professional economy”. It assumes more is always better – regardless of whether people already have enough, let alone reflecting on the rather vital question of more of what?
