On Wednesday, April 16, 1997, at 1:34 PM Jim Devine wrote >> Dave Richardson's recent missive (and an L.A. TIMES column by Robert Kuttner, Dec. 6, 1996) suggests the following: If one wants to measure the cost of living over time, why not divide the nominal consumer spending by the Genuine Progress Indicator, which is supposed to be a measure of the real benefit actually produced by our economy for people. (It's the standard formula for an average price level: money spent/use-value received.) The GPI adjusts real GDP figures for a lot of things such as environmental degradation, etc. << I think that this is the right idea. With resources it should be possible to develop the GPI into a more widely accepted statistic. Dave Richardson
