Earlier in the month, there was a gathering of economist groups at an annual meeting which was done to discuss the Bureau of Economic Analysis in United States which for more than 75 years has tracked the Gross Domestic Product or GDP. The gross domestic product is the addition of the monetary value of all the services and goods which are produced by the country in a time period. The journalists, politicians and a lot of the others have regularly cited the GDP as a major measure for the prosperity of a nation.
The economists who spoke at the panel which was termed “Beyond GDP” had made it very clear that they thought that it was a huge mistake because the GDP does not consider a lot of things such as childrearing and cleaning which is done in the households. It is not counting the value that people have for a clean environment of health. It doesn’t also consider the income distribution or even wealth and doesn’t pay any attention to the living quality.
Among the panelists, there was the Nobel Prize winner Angus Deaton who had been spending the previous few years in research of the rise in number of deaths of the people who are struggling and die due he causes which are self-inflicted such as drug and suicide overdose. There has been a fall in the life expectancy for the previous three years said Deaton.
Among the major drivers is the epidemic of opioid which is a significant driver when it comes to America and has killed 200,000 people in the countries. He said that the Pharmaceutical companies have been making many billions from this epidemic and he feels that counting something that kills people in the GDP is not a good idea.