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Measures of economic health/growth

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Measures of economic health/growth

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Vladimir Ulyanov posted on Tue, May 1 2012 9:49 AM

Does anybody know of any measures that can actually measure economic health/growth? Are there any measurement that can be used to compare economies?

'' The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.'' Stephen Hawking

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John James replied on Tue, May 1 2012 10:01 AM

Define "economic health/growth".

 

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Vladimir Ulyanov replied on Tue, May 1 2012 10:12 AM

Hmm, I said health so I would'nt be given formulae that measures purely growth in a booming economy. I guess a measure that can calculate the current performance aswell as current and future ability of an economy. I'm sorry this is a terrible explanation. I think I've realised there is no such thing. But is there anything that Austrians use as an alternative to GDP/GNP.

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John James replied on Tue, May 1 2012 10:24 AM

Vladimir Ulyanov:
is there anything that Austrians use as an alternative to GDP/GNP.

Not really, because as you said, there really isn't such a thing.

GDP is meaningless, and value is subjective,so there's no possible way to objectively measure wealth.  You can make some assumptions and derive some conclusions from a priori reasoning, and then use empirical data to support those conclusions, but there's no way to assert or quantify "health/growth" in any meaningful sense.

This is basically the fundamental crux between Austrian methodology and every other school of thought.

 

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