Economics was like psychology, a pseudoscience trying to hide that fact with intense theoretical hyperelaboration. And gross domestic product was one of those unfortunate measurement concepts, like inches or the British thermal unit, that ought to have been retired long before.

Kim Stanley Robinson
About This Quote

This quote is very interesting. It is kind of funny how it seems like John Kenneth Galbraith was really irritated by the whole idea of economic growth and its measurement. He even compared it to psychology, which is another similar measure. It is funny because he says that economics was like psychology, which makes it sound like economics is not very serious.

But Galbraith does not seem to think that economics itself is a serious subject. He mentions GDP as an example of a measurement concept that ought to have been retired long before. I think GDP probably has a lot of problems as a measurement concept, but I don’t know what those problems are exactly.

Source: Blue Mars

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