Quote:
Originally Posted by Still Growing  If someone thinks they should pay $120 to fix a $90 VCR just so it doesn't get discarded, this is ridiculous. |
Not necessarily.
The big problem is that the economy is stupid. To it, dollars are dollars.
But there's a world of difference between a dollar earned coding computer software and a dollar earned selling non-renewable oil (which is mostly what the VCR is made of). And there's a world of difference between dollars earned providing a valuable service and dollars spent on things such as replacement/repair costs resulting from a crime.
Yet, the way the economy is usually measured, a dollar is a dollar is a dollar. The money spent cleaning up oil spills is listed as
economic progress.
Things like the
GPI point out that GDP is an
awful way to measure progress and attempt to come up with a better way.
When something made from irreplacable resources such as oil is cheaper to replace than repair, the economy is doing a very poor job of modelling reality...