I saw this post included in a discussion of the book Doughnut Economics, seemingly to argue in favor of GDP as a goal, and against, for example, Raworth’s Doughnut (model from the just-mentioned book). I have the following two problems with GDP as a goal, and I think Raworth’s Doughnut or a variation thereof is better. 1) The arguments used here in favor of GDP as a goal are statistical in nature, going for associations instead of understanding. This is dangerous, a point that Lawrence Krauss likes to make often, and David Deutsch makes in Fabric of Reality, or at 15 minutes into his TED Talk on the same topic: https://​​www.ted.com/​​talks/​​david_deutsch_a_new_way_to_explain_explanation For example, an increase in oil spills and/​​or child labor is/​​are also positively correlated with a growth in GDP, but are presumably not positive. 2) To echo an argument Sam Harris makes on religious texts: even if they do good, they can likely be better, and then to prevent editing, prevents improvements and opportunities to mitigate harm. In conclusion, we need to go beyond statistics, towards understanding, GDP. And then (by analogy with the second problem with GDP as a goal /​​ argument against GDP as a goal) we need to gradually improve this measure and our goal, for example taking inspiration from the Doughnut model from Doughnut economics, but at a minimum by for example not positively valuing oil spills.
I saw this post included in a discussion of the book Doughnut Economics, seemingly to argue in favor of GDP as a goal, and against, for example, Raworth’s Doughnut (model from the just-mentioned book). I have the following two problems with GDP as a goal, and I think Raworth’s Doughnut or a variation thereof is better. 1) The arguments used here in favor of GDP as a goal are statistical in nature, going for associations instead of understanding. This is dangerous, a point that Lawrence Krauss likes to make often, and David Deutsch makes in Fabric of Reality, or at 15 minutes into his TED Talk on the same topic: https://​​www.ted.com/​​talks/​​david_deutsch_a_new_way_to_explain_explanation For example, an increase in oil spills and/​​or child labor is/​​are also positively correlated with a growth in GDP, but are presumably not positive. 2) To echo an argument Sam Harris makes on religious texts: even if they do good, they can likely be better, and then to prevent editing, prevents improvements and opportunities to mitigate harm. In conclusion, we need to go beyond statistics, towards understanding, GDP. And then (by analogy with the second problem with GDP as a goal /​​ argument against GDP as a goal) we need to gradually improve this measure and our goal, for example taking inspiration from the Doughnut model from Doughnut economics, but at a minimum by for example not positively valuing oil spills.