Quote:
Originally Posted by Pete F.
I think RFK put it well and he would likely be considered a centrist today.
Robert F. Kennedy put his finger on the inadequacy of gross domestic product in his March 1968 speech in Lawrence, Kan.: GDP “counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage,” he said.
And yet, Kennedy continued, GDP “does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.”
As far as Trump and Trumplicans are concerned, the only things that have any value are those things that can fetch a price.
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You use the RFK quote as a straw-mannish idiotic tautology. You set up GDP as lacking something it does not purport to measure. Then you seem to accuse it, by implication, of only doing that which it purports to do--speak of those things that involve a price. And from that you loosely slide that into meaning that Trump and Trumplicans only value things that fetch a price.
As usual, there is a vast unexplored space between your argument and your conclusion. One doesn't necessarily follow the other. Just because a Trumplican puts value in GDP, does not mean that he values nothing else.
i'm sure that Jim values other things than GDP which make "life worthwhile."