Cité Libre: Replace 'GDP': Toward a new Political Economy of Social Justice and Environmental Protection - by John Stokes

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Replace 'GDP': Toward a new Political Economy of Social Justice and Environmental Protection - by John Stokes

It is about time that responsible members of the economics profession begin a constructive dialogue on the relative merits of the continued use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), along with corresponding Leading Economic Indicators. Arguably, GDP should be replaced. It is a highly dysfunctional measurement context. The GDP measurement context pivots on a highly reductionist and materialistic conception of economic development. The economics profession maintains this economic performance index to the detriment of human civilization. Indeed, GDP manifests the economic sensibilities of the colonial European powers, and the United States in the nineteenth century. Such a political economic governance context ignored the plight of the poor, and viewed the environment to be a 'great toilet' for the pollution of "industry", that represented progress to the elites.