The Value Of A Nation 's Output Essay

5. How are the wealth and productivity of a nation usually measured, and what other factors must be considered when evaluating the well-being of a nation’s people?

-The nation’s GDP is a good measure of its economic well being and progress because it represents the total value of all goods and services produced in an economy, and what a country produces and what it consumes are nearly identical.

14. Explain why a nation’s GDP is both a good and poor measure of its economic well-being and progress?

First of all, economic growth is one of the macroeconomic objectives that the government wants to achieve as a primary goal and it happens when there is a rise in the enlarged product of population and per capita consumption. According to Hoover (2011), economic growth is the total material output of good values and service values in the market, measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in a specific period of time. The growth of GDP is measured by excluding intermediate consumptions (production and resale), purely financial transactions and second-hand sales, which prevents double counting. To obtain an accurate value of economic growth, GDP needs to include the total output of expenditures and incomes.

An economy, as defined by the Webster Dictionary, is the wealth and resources of a country or region, in terms of the production and consumption of goods and services. An economy, as defined by the vernacular, is a word that has become linked with synonyms that invoke feelings of dread, depression, collapse, and flat out anarchy at best. Both close to home and globally, people have felt some effect of the market crash. Since 2007, millions of Americans lost their homes, jobs, and feelings of financial security. To even begin to think about possible solutions to the current state of the economy, one must first understand the origin of our problems. We are in a recession today because of a weak job market, risky mortgages, and a heavy

Not all aspects of economic growth are positive, for example when an economy is at, or near its full capacity of productivity prices can be driven up causing inflation and the devaluing of their currency, where each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services that it previously could have. It can increase the

Erik Brynjolfsson once said “The key to growth? Race with the machines”. Erik stated this in an argument against Robert Gordon. The two of these wise men had discussed innovation and had major differences. Robert believed that innovation would have an end, while Erik said growth would continue as long as the people kept up with it the innovations. I agree with Erik, because growth does not end; and it can continue as long as people race with the new productivity and don’t allow it to take over.

“Since the beginning of the 20th century, global life expectancy has increased by 118%, infant mortality has declined by 81%, per person income has improved by 403% (in real dollars), all while human population has increased by more than 4x from 1.7 billion to 7.1 billion” (Allis). From that quote, it is shown that the statistics revolving around life have all improved. Education has become a factor that the majority of the population has access to. “The rates of literacy have also risen, going from 42% in 1900, to 84% in 2012; doubling themselves in a little over a century” (Allis). “According to a Harvard study, higher levels of education result in economic growth” (Aghion, Boustan, Hoxby, Vandenbussche). Following with this idea, the gross domestic product (GDP), the main indicator of the standing of an economy, has steadily been on the rise. The GDP per capita started at about $15,000 in 1950 and has reached a staggering $53,000 today” (Roser). This basically means that the total value of all produced goods in the world divided by the population has risen by that much. “The average world income per person has also reached a pinnacle $10,070- five times that of a century ago. Reducing death and disease and incomes rising sufficiently to enable access to food, water, shelter, sanitation, healthcare, and electricity increases the quality of

Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck advocate that cultures mature into different states depending on their value orientations. These orientations involve human’s relationships with nature, time, motive, human behavior, and other humans. Most cultures develop by putting their value into some aspects of these orientations over others. An example, Americans put value into nature and their relation to God. When only comparing the world’s industrialized nations, America is known for having a higher percentage of citizens that believe in God. Thus, this illustrates how America has been shaped by this orientation.

Measures of economic well-being such as GDP are subject to some limitations hence it is appropriate to use other alternative measures of economic growth. The limitations of GDP in measuring the economic well-being of a country include failure to capture the underground economy and failure to capture changes inequality. Others include the development of new products and failure to take in account human or leisure costs (Maddison 48).

When a nation experiences a long-term economic growth, people have a positive attitude. There are opportunities for new jobs, new technology, and open doors for more capital for investment. The result of growth increases demand, supply, aiding the production of goods and services boosting consumers’ confidence. Economists believe the right type of growth that is stable and controllable is the best.

Godrej’s “Myth 10: Growth is the Only Way” is the tenth installment of a series of articles addressing common “myths” about economics. As the title suggests, Myth 10 evaluates a common belief system stating continued economic growth is the only logical path for the future. Godrej refutes this idea, pointing out flaws in the economic growth mindset such as proliferation of hunger and poverty due to disproportional growth for the wealthiest individuals. Instead, Godrej claims, the best path for the future is to maintain a “steady-state” economy focused on stability and sustainability.

In Bill McKibben’s book Deep Economy, the chapter “After Growth” contains McKibben’s assertion dealing with the challenges of economic growth. McKibben states that economic growth has done little to diminish wealth inequality, done little to help stop the detrimental effects on the planet, and done little to make us any happier.

Robert F Keneddy speech on GDP highlighted the unique aspects associated with the understanding of GDP. The speech talked about the meaning and importance of GDP and the misinterpretations that are often attached with the concept. He was of the view that accumulation of material things has remained a main focus of economic agents and doing so community values and community excellence are often compromised. In his speech he presented an important concept that GDP cannot be used as a measure of welfare of wellbeing of the economy because it does not take into account the health of individuals, their standard of living, quality of education provided to the individuals etc. In this way it is not a good option to rely on GDP while having an idea about the development of an economy.

In earlier times Gross Domestic Product was one of the main indicators to measure a country’s wealth. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is defined as the total value of all the goods and services produced by a nation in any given year ("Is the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) a Good Measure of Prosperity?"). There are two ways of calculating a country’s GDP. The first is the income approach which is calculated by adding the wages of workers, income from rent, interest and profits. The second, more common form of calculating GDP, is the expenditure approach. Here GDP totals consumption expenditure, investment, government spending and net exports. GDP statistics are considered to reflect a county’s economic output which could possibly lead to growth. However GDP is a measure of income and it should not be confused with wealth. Which is why most modern economists do not consider GDP to be a good measure of a