steven787 said:
I'm no economist... but apperantly you know even less than me. Higher GDP doesn't necessarily mean a better country. Look at last quarter, 2.8% growth... not too shabby... why isn't anybody celebrating? Higher tax revenues aren't always good either, that probably means they'll spend more. You can actually have too much government demand, like now, which is very lopsided and unnatural. It doesn't creat much employment or capital investment. Next, when rich have more money to spend they don't buy more, they tend to buy substitute products and make financial investments (which don't contribute to GDP). 66% of Economists are Economists for ObamaThis is according to a new survey of 523 economists who are U.S. citizens and members of the American Economic Association.
Top Economists Overwhelmingly Favor Obama Plan: 80% Say He Has Better Grasp of Economics“Obama’s team is mainstream and non-ideological but extremely talented.”
"Even among Republicans Mr Obama has the edge: 46% versus 23% say Mr Obama has the better grasp of the subject." Mr Obama, says Jonathan Parker, a non-aligned professor at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, “is a pragmatist not an ideologue. I expect Clintonian economic policies.” "Twice as many economists think Mr McCain’s plan would be bad or very bad for long-run growth as Mr Obama’s. Given how much focus Mr McCain has put on his plan’s benefits for growth, this last is quite a repudiation."
Liberal's not a dirty word any more. :) |
I agree that GDP is way too often the end all be all as an economic measurement. It really ignores a lot of things, such as how unequal the distribution of wealth in an economy is and how sustainable that GDP growth is. Have you ever heard anyone talk about the margin for error on GDP either? No, and economists run and hide when you ask them.
We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers…Also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls. The only thing that really worried me was the ether. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge. –Raoul Duke
It is hard to shed anything but crocodile tears over White House speechwriter Patrick Buchanan's tragic analysis of the Nixon debacle. "It's like Sisyphus," he said. "We rolled the rock all the way up the mountain...and it rolled right back down on us...." Neither Sisyphus nor the commander of the Light Brigade nor Pat Buchanan had the time or any real inclination to question what they were doing...a martyr, to the bitter end, to a "flawed" cause and a narrow, atavistic concept of conservative politics that has done more damage to itself and the country in less than six years than its liberal enemies could have done in two or three decades. -Hunter S. Thompson
