oops. I sent this by mistake. Ignore it for now. On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 1:54 PM, Jim Devine <[email protected]> wrote: > Sandwichman wrote: >> ... John Kenneth Galbraith remarked fifty-odd years ago: >> >> "If we are concerned about our great appetite for materials, it is >> plausible to seek to increase the supply, to decrease the waste, to >> make better use of the stocks that are available, and to develop >> substitutes. But what of the appetite itself? Surely this is the >> ultimate source of the problem. If it continues its geometric course, >> will it not one day have to be restrained? Yet in the literature of >> the resource problem this is the forbidden question. Over it hangs a >> nearly total silence. It is as though, in the discussion of the chance >> for avoiding automobile accidents, we agree not to make any mention of >> speed!" > > "Growth is good, all the time; all the time, Growth is good." > > That's a modified version of a Christian prayer. It's a perfect mantra > for the orthodoxy within the economics profession. Naturally enough, > they typically do not ask exactly what "growth" is. It's assumed that > real GDP per person is an adequate measure of it; it's assumed that if > real GDP per person rises, that's good for people. I've forgotten who > it was, but one pen-pal said that he uses the word "growth" as > synonymous with real GDP growth (per capita, I presume). This fits > with the orthodoxy's perspective, even though that contributor does > not like "growth." > > Empirically, because we live within a capitalist system, the kind of > "growth" we see is _capitalist_ growth. GDP growth measures the growth > of exchange-value, not use-value. (Adjusting for the role of inflation > does not change that.) This growth in turn reflects the accumulation > of capital. > > In a capitalist economy, the popular focus on real GDP makes sense > (given the balance of political power). After all, if capitalists do > not accumulate fast enough (so that real GDP does not grow fast > enough), the availability of jobs falls relative to the number of > people seeking them. Since the vast majority of people aren't > independently wealthy, rising unemployment (as in the current > recession) is a total pain. As has been noted, rising unemployment is > associated with rising suicide rates, rising drunkenness, and the > like. (Rising drunkenness may be associated with greater college > attendance, as people give up on job-seeking and decide to go back to > school, where people drink a lot.) > > As anti-growth folks note correctly rising real GDP per capita has > been associated with rising destruction of the environment, rising > hours of work per household, rising inequality, and other ills. This > is especially true in recent decades. Real GDP is missing a lot as a > measure of how well we're doing. In response, some have developed > alternative measures of aggregate output such as the Genuine Progress > Indicator (GPI). In this measure, the cost of environmental > destruction is subtracted from GDP, as are other non-market costs. > Also, non-market benefits such as leisure time are added into GDP. The > total is also adjusted for the role of increasing inequality. The GPI > (in real, per person terms) has largely been flat in recent years, > even as real per-person GDP has generally risen. > > If the GPI is an adequate measure of use-value,[*] the contrast > between its path and that of GDP (which measures exchange-value) is a > symptom of the contradiction between use-value and exchange-value that > Marx pointed to. > > Note the phrase "given the balance of political power" above. It's > possible that a mass movement could impose > > > [*] It's not, since use-values are non-quantitative and thus can't be > added up. But something like the GPI may be as good as it gets. > -- > Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own > way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. >
-- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
