The Worthy House (Charles Haywood) Against Gross Domestic Product
Feb 13, 2025
This discussion critiques Gross Domestic Product as a flawed measure of national success. It reveals how GDP misrepresents value by counting harmful activities while ignoring essential contributions like household work. Examples from California's economy and the healthcare debate illustrate how wasteful consumption inflates GDP figures. The host advocates for a shift away from GDP worship, promoting metrics that reflect true flourishing and well-being instead. It’s a bold call to rethink what success really means as America approaches a significant milestone.
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Childcare Versus Parental Work
- Haywood contrasts paid childcare with unpaid parental childrearing omitted from GDP measurement.
- He highlights that a mother paying others to raise her children counts, while her own labor does not.
California's GDP Composition
- Much of California's large GDP consists of finance, real estate, professional services, and government.
- Haywood shows manufacturing and tangible production form only a minority of its reported output.
Healthcare Inflates GDP, Not Health
- US healthcare spending hugely inflates GDP while producing poor outcomes and high extraction.
- Haywood argues much spending flows to intermediaries and administrative rent-seeking, not patient value.
