Is GDP the correct way to measure nation wealth?

[oldtime]

and these stories can go on all night long

they will tell you about the exact chicken, and how much they sold it for

and the man that bought it

and what he bought bought it for

and not a single story about an egg that got hatched

 

[oldtime]

and the funny thing is

one of these men who showed up to buy a chicken

drove up in a brand new hummer

and paid top dollar

they bought three of them

he needed them so the witch doctor could use them to put a curse on one of his enemies

(I know this, because my father in law is the witch doctor, business has been good since he moved into the city)

so there is a lot of ways to measure wealth

gdp may be one of them

I guess it just depends on what it is exactly for you, you are trying to measure

 

[Ed Breen]

Oldtime, you are the best. You remind me of a freind of mine, retired, was a top lawyer, international lawyer, for Mecrk; tells a great story about negotiating a distribution deal with a witch doctor in Haiti.

 

[oldtime]

yeah well, the point is, all my money in the chicken farms is gone

first thing, they figured out how to boil the chicken feed and eat it

second thing is, they sold off all the chickens, mostly for religious purposes

the rest they ate

there is your consumption model

not a single egg ever got hatched

 

[oldtime]

money is not the solution to all problems

if it was, we could all make the world a better place

 

[oldtime]

my mistake was thinking if you could just teach people how capitalism works, then everything else would just take care of itself

some people just have simply different values than I have

and what I consider to be success, they consider it to be nothing

 

[Random.Capital]

Quote from oldtime:

and these stories can go on all night long

they will tell you about the exact chicken, and how much they sold it for

and the man that bought it

and what he bought bought it for

and not a single story about an egg that got hatched

"Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

Same as it ever was...

 

[oldtime]

Quote from Random.Capital:

"Thou shalt not boil a kid in its mother's milk."

Same as it ever was...

yeah

coming from a goyam like you

we know what you do with that pigmeat

sausage gravy at Random's house Saturday morning

 

[oldtime]

as you know

cornering a market can be very difficult

sometimes you have to resort to religious superstition

that's why we don't eat hogs

we just couldn't corner them

but rabbis still trade them

 

[Humpy]

Of course GDP isn't much of a measure.
Wealth is a bit like happiness ! The more you look for it the more it eludes one.The USA is wealth obsessed and.. is bankrupt to the tune of 17 trillion.
Take Madagascar which was better off before the greedy money grubbers destroyed it's natural and unique heritage of animals and plants. They have bulldozed the jungle and now there are rows of cassava money making plants as far as the eye can see. They ruined a once beautiful island and for what ? Figures in their computerised bank accounts.

The sooner people get sensible the better. The Amazon and other jungles are already on the danger list. If the Brazilians for instance had an ounce of good sense they would blast the illegal loggers and their massive machines to kingdom come and good riddance.

The only thing preserving the Congo jungles are the idiots are too busy fighting each other. Some people made fortunes supplying guns. Let's hope they destroy themselves sooner rather than later.