GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.

[Carl Remick]

> Charles: When Clinton said "It's the economy stupid" and then 
> when he claims now, as does the whole bourgeois media that 
> the economy is great, there may not be specific reference to 
> "GDP", but its growth is what is behind the claim that the 
> economy is great. So, in that sense , "growth of GDP" is used 
> to hoodwink poor people and others in the working class. "If 
> the economy is great , and you are poor, then its your 
> individual fault, not the system" is the hoodwink "logic".

Excellent point.  There is also the consideration that raw statistics on
wealth generation mask the *quality* of economic growth that is
occurring.  Consider the blight of suburban sprawl.  I'm often amazed
when I drive along Long Island's Jericho Turnpike that all these hideous
food franchises and other retail eyesores appear as valuable properties
on the taxation lists.  It is, of course, easy to caricature that as
la-di-da stance -- since plenty of the world's poor would be willing to
trade at least some of the scenic wonders around them for at least a few
of American-style consumer comforts.  But it's obviously a mistake to
see GDP gains -- with all their blindness to negative externalities --
as the precise equivalent of gains in a society's quality of life.

Carl