The FTC has been studying surveillance pricing since 2024 and recently its chairman told a Senate committee it may be time to review its disclosure rules for companies.
GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in a country. A legal scam can hide as a service and get counted.
This is why cars are good for GDP but mass transit isn’t, because a lot more cost goes into a car than a bus on a per rider basis.
The same goes for health insurance. Simply paying a doctor for services is far less GDP than paying an insurance company who then pays the doctor after taking a cut.
Once you realize what GDP measures a lot of what countries do makes sense.
Scams improve GDP
I’m not an economist, but this is probably technically true
GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced in a country. A legal scam can hide as a service and get counted.
This is why cars are good for GDP but mass transit isn’t, because a lot more cost goes into a car than a bus on a per rider basis.
The same goes for health insurance. Simply paying a doctor for services is far less GDP than paying an insurance company who then pays the doctor after taking a cut.
Once you realize what GDP measures a lot of what countries do makes sense.
if i burn down your house, the gdp grows, because lot of people now have work rebuilding it.
I remember this discussed in my economics class 20y ago… Whether housewives work should be in GDP. One would hope economists move forward from there.
Yup. But, that dollar changes hands far more times in the society with higher costs. That’s a good thing, assuming costs don’t dwarf income