Skip to main content
NEU job vacancy
Growth is not good: the great GDP myth
It’s not some question of being realistic yet effective over being compassionate but economically incompetent: there is absolutely no material basis to continue to measure societies by their GDP, explains BERT SCHOUWENBURG

SINCE the second world war, the number one priority for politicians and their economic advisers is the pursuit of growth, which is typically measured by gross domestic product (GDP), a composite index using consumer spending, private investment and government spending to arrive at a figure representing a country’s economic output.

In today’s media and academic circles, economic growth is widely acknowledged as being an unquestioned and essential good, the absence of which leads to recession, which is regarded as being an undesirable economic state.

Indeed, it is one of the few areas where Labour leader Keir Starmer has not committed a U-turn by frequently saying that he and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves will make economic growth their principal policy aim once elected.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
CRINGING SERVILITY: Sir Keir Starmer picks up UK US trade deal papers dropped by Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, June 16 2025
Features / 5 July 2025
5 July 2025

Under current policy, welfare cuts are just a small downpayment on future austerity, argues MICHAEL BURKE

The Bank of England in the City of London
Britain / 21 January 2025
21 January 2025
Experts warn not to overplay the risk of wage growth to inflation
A rally demanding changes to the Trump administration’s re
Features / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
Global South governments’ sovereignty and ability to decide future economic policy are severely compromised by signing free trade agreements, whose terms are heavily weighted in favour of the already wealthy countries of the global North, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG