grab your hydroponics, we're gonna save this country

Here's another myth that I had believed until last week.
I thought GDP was supposed to be the total of all
manufacturing and services that got sold in a country,
over a period of time.
WRONG.
That's good , because for decades now , I thought ,
"how do they do that" and had come to the conclusion
that GDP as a measurement was bullshit, anyway.
It's not just any old bullshit, it's not even about production,
at all.
gross domestic PRODUCT! D-uuuh.
How could I be so stupid?

It's about cash flow in the economy. So, it could include
all the illegal drug activity in the country, if it were legalised,
and immediately we'd get a boost of 15% on GDP,
because drugs are now sold on the black market,
the GDP of which goes up, the more the economy crumbles.

IshitUnot:  zerohedge
Guest Post: Where’s The Crisis?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/23/2012 18:41 -0400

Submitted by Azizonomics

The thing about GDP, is that it doesn’t really measure wealth creation, or the size of the economy. It measures a derivative of that: money circulation. If Congress passed a law saying that everyone in America had to smoke meth (hey, if you can mandate the purchase of health insurance, why not mandate drug consumption in the name of increasing GDP?) and gamble all their disposable income on horse racing, GDP would almost certainly improve. And that’s growth, right? Except it isn’t. Real growth comes from innovation, productivity, imagination, and hard work. You can attempt to quantify it, but there is no easy catch-all number that will give you a quick and simple insight.