The BBC just broadcast a TV news item on the reducing rate of economic growth - a widely deployed euphemism for increase in GDP - in China. The preamble stated as fact that getting economic growth is a worldwide problem. Thus the whole item was based on the false premise that an increase in GDP is entirely desirable.
The New Scientist reported on the Genuine Progress Indicator - a measurement that removes negative elemts from GDP. As the article puts it:
"[GDP as a] measure of prosperity fails to account for social factors and
environmental costs. Oil spills and crime, for example, increase GDP
because money must be spent on clean-up and replacement of lost goods,
yet few would claim that they increase the general well-being of a
state."
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