Patents can cause high GDP, regulations increase GDP, corporate bailouts increase GDP, lousy shit that's insanely priced causes high GDP, and govt spending is included in GDP.
Why is economic growth considered desirable by so many? Is it because it will get the govt more tax revenue?
Flat GDP is the natural order and I don't understand why so many people like the "blue pill".
GDP may provide you with a measure of economic activity (along with a good view on inflation/deflation of a currency) in a nation but it doesn't tell the whole story as in where that activity is actually taking place in the economy. High levels of GDP in industries which produce very little tangible hard goods and services for the average citizen/consumer (for example military spending on wars) in a nation aren't that beneficial compared to a modest GDP gain which is focused heavily in sectors of the economy which actually benefit the average person by providing them tangible goods and services that they can acquire and consume.
For example WW2 saw high rates of GDP in the US. However for the average US citizen in WW2 they saw very little of that benefit from our high rates of GDP during that period. In fact it was a period filled with rationing and shortages for the average American consumer because domestic economic production was being directed almost entirely toward the war effort.
Another example would be Japan. Of which on the other hand has experienced low levels of GDP for the last 20 years. However what little GDP has occurred has mainly been in areas of the economy in which tangible goods and services were being made available to the average Japanese citizen and so their standard of living did not decrease one bit. However the sector of the economy in which their diminished GDP has greatly affected happened to be the one area which created the bubble which tanked their economy in the 90's, i.e. their stock market which has not recovered or benefited from not having large amounts of money being poured into it.
Edit: That last part about their stock market however might be changing now that Japan has a embarked on a mission to devalue their currency so their stock market might rise again, along with inflation and risk taking based on their government's inflationary policies.
I'm working on getting one however.
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