=========================================================================
Date:         Sun, 19 Sep 1999 11:13:26 +0800
Reply-To:     WORLD WAR II FORUM 
Sender:       WORLD WAR II FORUM 
From:         chang 
Subject:      GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

This message is dedicated to poor people and people of justice all
over the world. It is allowed to be printed in paper, forwarded and
posted to other mailing lists/discussion forums as long as its
attribution is given to the author and the wording is not altered in
any way. Please pass it around to all of your friends and every
mailing list that you can reach.

Subject: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
by Ju-chang He

All bourgeois economists are crafty and evil. They are all cheaters.
It is because they use only GDP to measure the whole economic
situation of a country and make its government pay no attention to
the living standards of poor people so as to keep them in poor
condition for ever.

Nowadays, most countries all over the world use Gross Domestic
Product to judge the economic growth of a certain country and,
according to this GDP, calculate this country's economic growth rate.

When there appears a large GDP and a high economic growth rate of 9%
a year in a country, economists will say that the economy is great
and the financial officers will be proud of it. But I will still say
that the economy is bad. It is because poor people's living standards
haven't been raised. There are still a lot of people suffering from
cold and hunger. They can't afford to send their children to school,
and, as a result, too many children are deprived of education. If I
say that the economy is bad, the government has got to make every
effort to raise the living standards of poor people. If economists
say that the economy is great, there seems no need for the government
to raise the living standards of poor people.

When there is a small GDP and a negative economic growth rate of -2%
a year, economists will say that the economy is bad and the financial
officers will be ashamed of it. And then the government has got to
make every effort to raise GDP, but not the living standards of poor
people. Therefore, it appears that GDP is for the rich to hoodwink
poor people to keep them poor. GDP as a measure of the whole economic
situation for a country is unscientific, because it does not tell the
whole story; and unfair for poor people, because it leaves them out
of prosperity.

The kernel of this issue is what economists use GDP to measure: the
whole economic situation, or just the volume and production of goods
sold?  It is very clear that economists use GDP to measure the whole
economic situation, not just the volume and production of goods sold.
When there is a large GDP and a high economic growth rate, they will
say that the economy is great and the financial officers will be
proud of it although the living conditions of poor people is very bad
and needs improving. They don't pay any attention to the living
conditions of poor people. So there is no need for the government to
raise the living standards of poor people. Therefore we say that GDP,
as a measure of the whole economic situation, is unscientific and
unfair for poor people, and GDP is merely a means used for the rich
to hoodwink poor people to keep them poor.

What Should We Do to Raise the Living Standards of Poor People?

First, I'd like to prove that GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor
people. GDP is for the rich to hoodwink poor people. Then, instead of
GDP, we use the living standards of the people to measure the whole
economic situation of a country
. Next, we can
carry on state regulations and give guidance of market
. In this way,
the market will produce enough consumer goods of the first and second
grade. According to today's productivity, it is not difficult to
produce enough consumer goods of the first and second grade. The
government should make laws to fix a minimum wage level in accordance
with the economic situation of the country and make it clear that the
wages of all the workers oughtn't to be lower than this level. The
government should distribute relief fund among the unemployed and
cripple. Therefore the living standards of poor people will
undoubtedly be raised.

If the government refuses to raise the living standards of poor
people, we can call it a cheater-government. Then the government has
every reason to regard a rise of the living standards of poor people
as a matter of first importance.

In order to use the living standards of the people instead of GDP to
measure the whole economic situation of a country, I'd like to offer
a criterion of how to measure the living standards of the people:

People's living standard can be divided into four grades. The first
grade is necessary consumption of education, clothing, food, housing
and transportation. The second grade is ordinary consumption, which
means buying some more clothes and purchasing TV sets and washers,
etc. The third grade is extravagant consumption, which means going to
hotels, restaurants and dancing-halls and taking cars, etc. The
fourth grade is over-extravagant consumption.

Therefore we should use the living standards of poor people and the
sufficiency of the first and second grade consumer goods as the
criterion to judge the economic situation of one country and the
achievements of its government. Only when poverty is eliminated, may
we say that the social economy is developed. Only when the living
standards of the low-income people is improved, will we be able to
take just and accurate measurement of the economic growth of a
country. So, the economic growth of a certain country can't be
measured by GDP, which is really unscientific and unfair for poor
people.

Sincerely,
Ju-chang He
E-mail address: chang@public.shenzhen.cngb.com
SHENZHEN, P.R. CHINA
Welcome to My Homepage

=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:30:42 +0800
Reply-To:     WORLD WAR II FORUM 
Sender:       WORLD WAR II FORUM 
From:         chang 
Subject:      Fwd: Re: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

-----Original Message-----
From: chang 
To: pen-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu 
Date: Thursday, September 30, 1999 4:14 AM
Subject: Re: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
Date: Thursday, September 30, 1999 2:04 AM J. Barkley Rosser, Jr.
wrote:
>      I was not being facetious when I asked: Are the economists
>in Castro's Cuba "bourgeois cheaters" when they use the
>concept of GDP?  And, believe me, they do.  Indeed, I repeat,
>there is no nation on earth, other than a few in such a mess that
>they gather no data whatsoever, that do not keep track of something
>that is equivalent to GDP, whether they are social democratic
>bourgeois, such as the low poverty Scandinavian countries, or
>self-proclaimed socialist nations such as Cuba or North Korea,
>or any other nation on the globe.  Just endlessly repeating
>that GDP is unfair to poor people and that people who use it
>are bourgeois cheaters is very unconvincing.


So you agree that the economists in Castro's Cuba are "bourgeois
cheaters" when they use the concept of GDP. Are you a economist of
bourgeois? If you don't want to be a cheater, you should tell Castro,
the people of Cuba and the people all over the world that GDP is
unscientific and unfair for poor people. If you do so, you are a kind
man. If you don't, you are still a cheater. Because GDP is a tool of
bourgeois economists. Poverty will not be eliminated unless you tell
the people all the world that GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor
people.

Sincerely,
Ju-chang He
E-mail: chang@public.shenzhen.cngb.com
SHENZHEN, P.R. CHINA
Welcome to My Homepage

=========================================================================
Date:         Thu, 30 Sep 1999 09:21:40 +0800
Reply-To:     WORLD WAR II FORUM 
Sender:       WORLD WAR II FORUM 
From:         chang 
Subject:      GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Hello WORLDWARIIFORUMers,
My English is not good. I have rewritten my article with the help of a
English friend. I would be happy..., if you would be pleased to read
my article again...

---------------------------------------------------
This message is dedicated to poor people and people of justice all
over the world. You can print it, forward and post it to other mailing
lists/discussion forums as long as its
attribution is given to the author and the wording is not altered in
any way. Feel free to pass it around to all of your friends.

Subject: GDP is unscientific and unfair for poor people.
by Ju-chang He

Western economists disguise economic reality and appear to do so
deliberately.  They use the GDP, (Gross Domestic Product), to measure the
whole economic status of a country and this results in the government paying
no attention to the living standards of poor people. So poverty is perpetuated.

Nowadays, most countries use the GDP to judge their economic
growth and, according to this GDP, calculate their
economic growth rate. When there appears a large GDP and
a high economic growth rate, say 9% per
year, economists will say that the economy is great and the financial
officers will be proud, but still the economy is bad. It is bad because the
living standards of the poor haven't been raised. There are still a lot of
people suffering from cold and hunger. They can't afford to send their
children to school, and, as a result, too many children are deprived of
education.

If the economists say things are bad, the government has got to make an
effort to raise the living standards of poor people. If the economists say
that the economy is great, there seems no need for the government to raise
the living standards of poor people.

When there is a small GDP and a negative economic growth rate of,
say, -2% a year, the economists will say that the economy is bad and the
financial officers will be ashamed of it.  Then the government has got to
make every effort to raise GDP, but the living standards of the poor are
unaffected. Therefore, it appears that GDP is for the rich to hoodwink the
poor people to keep them poor.

The GDP, as a measure of the whole economic situation for a country, is
unscientific, because it does not tell the whole story; and it is unfair for
poor people, because it excludes them from prosperity.

What Should We Do to Raise the Living Standards of the Poor?

First, I'd like to prove that the GDP, as a measure of a country's
total economy, is unscientific and unfair for poor.  Then, I'll show that
instead of the GDP, we could use the living standards of the people to
measure the whole economic situation of a country.

In order to use the living standards of the people instead of GDP to
measure the whole economic situation of a country, I'd like to offer a
criterion of how to measure the living standards of the people:
    People's living standard can be divided into four grades. The first
grade is necessary consumption of education, clothing, food, housing and
transportation. The second grade is ordinary consumption, which means buying
some more clothes and purchasing TV sets and washers, etc. The third grade
is extravagant consumption, which means going to hotels, restaurants and
dancing-halls and taking cars, etc. The fourth grade is over-extravagant
consumption.

Next, we can carry on state regulations and give guidance of market.
Go to the following site for an explanation:
.
    In this way, the market will produce enough consumer goods of the first
and second grade. According to today's productivity, it is not difficult to
produce enough consumer goods of the first and second grade. The government
should make laws to fix a minimum wage level in accordance with the economic
situation of the country and make it clear that the wages of all the workers
oughtn't to be lower than this level. The government should distribute
relief fund among the unemployed and disabled. Thus, the living standards of
poor people will undoubtedly be raised.

If the government refuses to raise the living standards of the poor,
then their loyalties become clear. This visibility serves to motivate the
government to raise living standards of poor people as a matter of first
importance.

So, we should use the living standards of poor people and the
sufficiency of the first and second grade consumer goods as the
criterion to
judge the economic situation of a country and the achievements of its
government. Only when poverty is eliminated, may we say that the social
economy is developed. Only when the living standards of the low-income
people are improved, will we be able to take a just and accurate measurement
of the economic growth of a country. So, the economic growth of a certain
country can't be measured by GDP, which is really unscientific and unfair
for poor people.

Bourgeois economists may argue:
**GDP is scientific and fair. Because GDP was NOT designed to measure
distribution, it was designed to measure volume - so the criticism of
unfairness does not apply.
**GDP measure just the volume and production of goods sold, not the
living standards of poor people.
**GDP does not measure income distribution.

My reply:
The kernel of this issue is how economists use the GDP.  Do they present
it as a measure of the overall performance of the economy, or as merely the
volume and production of goods sold?  It is very clear that
economists use the GDP to represent the whole economic situation, not just
the volume and production of goods sold.  This misrepresentation is the injustice.
    When there is a large GDP and a high economic growth rate, they will say
that the economy is great and the financial officers will be proud of it,
although the living conditions of poor can be very bad and need improving.
The economists don't pay any attention to the living conditions of poor
people. So there is no need for the government to raise the living standards
of poor people. Therefore, we say that GDP, as a measure of the whole
economic situation, is unscientific and unfair for poor people, and the GDP
is merely a propaganda tool to keep the poor people poor.

Sincerely,
Ju-chang He
E-mail: chang@public.shenzhen.cngb.com
SHENZHEN, P.R. CHINA
Welcome to My Homepage

=========================================================================
Date:         Wed, 29 Sep 1999 22:31:58 -0700
Reply-To:     WORLD WAR II FORUM 
Sender:       WORLD WAR II FORUM 
From:         "Robert W. Cherny" 
Subject:      Re: WORLDWARIIFORUM Digest - 18 Sep 1999 to 29 Sep 1999 (#1999-30)
In-Reply-To:  <199909300353.UAA27247@diana.sfsu.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

Colleagues:  This listserv list is apparently still operating.  I'm going
to try to unsubscribe by sending a message to the listserv address:
        listserv@ashp.listserv.cuny.edu
with the message
        unsubscribe WORLDWARIIFORUM
If that doesn't work, try
        signoff WORLDWARIIFORUM

  Robert W. Cherny           Website:  http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~cherny/
  Professor of History              Voice and messages:  (415) 338-7561
  San Francisco State University            Campus FAX:  (415) 338-7539
  San Francisco, CA  94132                   E-mail:  
  =====================================================================