Politicians Who Promise "Economic Growth" Are Lying 💰
Politicians Who Promise "Economic Growth" Are Lying 💰
They want more money-spinning and inflation, NOT assets for the bottom 99%
We hear a lot about GDP in the media, don’t we?
It’s every corporatist’s obsession.
Growth, growth, growth.
“If we only had a higher GDP, all our problems would magically disappear!”
If you ever hear a politician or media person talk positively about GDP, see it as a red flag notification that this person is decidedly not on Team Human.
GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product.
Even the name is a lie (except for the gross bit.)
GDP isn’t simply the total value of actual hard goods (products) created/produced by a country’s citizens.
That would be far too honest for elite-captured governments.
Today, GDP is simply the total amount of all domestic spending — consumer spending, government spending, investments, net exports, etc.
In caveman terms: How much money spins.
This is where the gross part comes in.
GDP is a scam: A simple scenario
Let’s say a dude chops down some trees, quarries some rocks, builds a house, and sells it for $500,000.
Every fair-minded person would agree said lumberjack-miner-builder created $500,000 worth of value — $500k in real, actual, tangible gross domestic product.
Let’s say the house was purchased by a multi-trillion-dollar predator fund like Blackrock and, through a management company, was rented out on a room-by-room basis using AI-assisted price maximization to bring in $50,000/year.
In corrupt countries, this $50k/year is also considered GDP.
Isn’t that insane?
Blackrock didn’t create ANY new, usable value for others… but robbing rents from hard-working renters is somehow magically considered a product.
Gross.
Now let’s say those landlord-impoverished renters have to borrow $5,000 to buy furniture — viola, more GDP!
Now let’s say those landlord-impoverished renters are forced to get home insurance — viola, more GDP!
There are literally trillions of dollars of spin that take place every year that create NOTHING:
stock investing
high-frequency trading
currency arbitrage
commodities speculation
military spending
advertising
corporatized medical expenses
real estate agent commissions
The list goes on and on.
Not a product in sight.
But all are calculated as GDP.
The problem with GDP
The problem with GDP is that it equates money-spinning with improvements in human well-being. (To say nothing of all the degradation to people and planet.)
If the cost of living doubled for the average person, it would be a nightmare that would impoverish millions and kill thousands, but corporate political pundits would be hopping up and down at the incredible “economic growth.”
British Conservatives have been elected for most of the decades of the past century because they’d somehow duped the electorate into believing that “GDP go up” is somehow a good thing for a nation that, when you subtract the City of London, its giant money-spinning tax haven, is actually poorer per capita than Mississippi.
GDP Is A Conman’s Game — Here’s How We Should Measure Growth Instead
I like to envision five levels of how to measure growth in society.
Most countries will never exit Level 1 because they’re run by creeps:
Level 1: GDP
As mentioned, straight-up GDP is nonsense.
Because it’s not solely measuring new wealth created.
It’s just measuring money-spinning.
AND…
…huge and…
A country can easily boost its GDP numbers simply by expanding its money supply.
If you want to show 10% economic growth, just let banks lend 10% more money. Yay more spinning debt!
Zimbabwe is awesome at this.
Want 1 million % growth?
Just hyper-inflate your currency.
(I have a Zimbabwean $100 trillion note.)
The US, the UK, and Canada do this all the time on a slightly lesser scale.
The UK has increased its money supply by 220X since 1963.
Which is explains why most of the UK’s “economic growth” in the past sixty years is simply non-existent.
GDP is for chumps.
Level 2: Inflation-adjusted GDP
A slightly better calculation that some countries use is to adjust GDP for inflation, so strip out the fake boost in numbers thanks to expanding the money supply.
But even this is nonsense, because, as Truflation has proven, governments lie about the true rate of inflation every single hour of every single day.
(GDP, in addition to including all sorts of anti-growth spending like interest and rents, doesn’t include pro-human activity like volunteerism, which clearly enriches society. Would you rather see rents go up 10% or volunteerism go up 10%? Case closed.)
Level 3: Median after-tax income as defined by PPP
Another way to see if your country is growing economically is to measure median (NOT average) post-tax income as defined by PPP (purchasing power parity.)
But we need to make sure we calculate each nation’s growth in PPP-adjusted after-tax median income from actual creative/contributive work, NOT incomes from rents, interest, and investments.
But even this growth calculation has a problem:
Who cares if incomes are high, if it’s all going to interest and rents and high prices?
Plus, income is basically irrelevant if debt levels are through the roof.
Level 4: Median net worth as defined by PPP
This is my favorite monetary way to measure a nation’s wealth and growth.
Is the median person’s net worth growing in real terms?
That’s the best way to see how successful a national economy is really growing.
But even this calculation has a problem — it might just mean everyone is an absolute workaholic.
Level 5: Freedom
How much time do people have to work to achieve a good standard of life?
How much free time do they have to do what they want to do — to love their family and friends, learn and grow, gain health and strength, and lovingly care for our planet?
Freedom is measured in time… minutes, hours, and seconds.
It’s that free time that allows us to turn chronos (minute) time into kairos (moment) time.
And what is life if it’s only made of money but never memorable moments?
In conclusion
Clearly, the best way to measure a nation’s growth is to ask:
Within the context of environmental sustainability, is the median citizen’s net worth increasing while the number of hours they need to work diminishing?
That’s a good, solid, moral, economically sound way to measure the best kind of growth any society could hope for.
So naturally, elite-captured governments haven’t even thought of this idea.
They’d rather see those GDP money numbers spin higher and higher and higher until everyone is a slave and the planet lies in ruins.
Explore Jared A. Brock’s books and films:
Redeeming Uncle Tom: a documentary about the real-life slave who inspired the nation-shaking novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Red Light Green Light: a documentary about human trafficking and how to stop it.
Over 18: a documentary about pornography addiction.
A God Named Josh: a myth-busting biography about Jesus’s politics, economics, and philosophy.
The Road to Dawn: A biography about Josiah Henson, the real-life hero who inspired Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
A Year of Living Prayerfully: a comedic 37,000-mile pilgrimage around the world.
In the 1950s, banks were deemed to generate 5% of GDP. Now it is almost 30%. That's how big the scam is!
Marginals, people who choose or are forced to live in trucks, Vans, caravans, tipis, tiny houses, self built houses (Tony Wrench style) are, by your measurements living more sustainably than the conventional population. Are they a role model for a better economy and society?