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Robert Kennedy on GDP

Wimble Don
Talks
YouTube
1 HN user recommended this talk1 month2021–2024 score 1.5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN quotes it whenever debating GDP and metrics of success beyond money.

A two-minute excerpt of Robert Kennedy's 1968 University of Kansas speech criticizing GDP as a measure of national worth. He notes it counts harmful spending while ignoring what makes life worthwhile.

“GDP includes money spent on addictive and harmful drugs, polluting industries, and many other ventures that are actively harmful.” (HN, 2024)

1 strong recommendations · 2 citations · Talks

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@lnxg33k1 Jan 2024 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Meta unlawfully ignores the users' right to easily withdraw consent: complaint
Read more
It baffles me that the US has been the nest of some of the greatest things for human beings, and now has completely forgotten itself, it baffles me that you had a guy called Kennedy coming up with this perfection [this video] And now you remember nothing of what he said, it is unbelievable that you're here only measuring the success of a company regardless of the effects it has on the people, you measure the success of the company by money, ok. I consider US tech company as the worst, as the most exploiting, depressing, cheating, dangerous, who serve no purpose other than the one of their shareholders. Do you own the definition of success?
Kennedy's remarks on measuring success beyond money.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@lcam84 Aug 2021 Cites it
on HN thread Clinging Desperately to a Metaphor (2011)
Gross Domestic Product, is a very gross way to measure progress as the name implies. Robert Kennedy said in respect of GDP “It measures everything, in short, except that which makes life really worth living.” [1] You have alternatives like the genuine progress indicator (GPI) that includes aspects such as pollution, criminality and health to the GDP. Most of all we can have many measures, we should not reduce progress to only a number. [1] [this video]
Robert Kennedy's speech critiquing GDP as a measure of progress.
@commodoreboxer Jul 2024 Cites it
on HN thread I Received an AI Email
Read more
GDP is a measure. I'm very much not an economist, but I am extremely skeptical that the health of an economy can be reduced to any single number. Goodheart's law and all. I concede that GDP is a good indicator, but I think you can have things that help GDP while simultaneously hurting the economy. Otherwise any scam or con would be considered beneficial, and it would make sense to mandate minimum individual spending to ensure economic activity. A low GDP inherently shows poor economic health, but a high GDP does not guarantee good health. In my mind (noting, again, that I'm no economist), economic health is defined by the effectiveness of allocating resources to things that are beneficial to the members of that economy. Any amount of GDP can be "waste", resources flowing to places where they do not benefit the public. As Robert Kennedy famously pointed out, GDP includes money spent on addictive and harmful drugs, polluting industries, and many other ventures that are actively harmful.[0] [0]: [this video]
Kennedy noting GDP counts harmful spending such as drugs and pollution.

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