Microeconomics

This video is a British House of Commons committee hearing on the use of Quality of Life measures. The speaker is advocating using such measures. The video is Closed Captioned. Once the video states click on the CC icon and select from the menu.

This video is from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (bea.gov) which computes the GDP and National Income and Product Accounts information. The video describes what GDP includes. From more detailed information follow the BEA link and select the data series and/or tables of specific interest to you. The video is Closed Captioned. Once the video states click on the CC icon and select from the menu.

This week's discussion topic is about Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Per Capita GDP and Quality of Life. GDP is the market value of all final goods and services produced in an economy in a year. Per Capita GDP is GDP/Population and shows how much of total GDP is theoretically available to each individual in the society. Per Capita GDP is the normal measure of Standard of Living when comparing nations.
Quality of Life has no standard definition. It is broader concept that attempts to embrace the multitude of variables that make people happy. There are many measures of it, but all include GDP and/or Per Capita GDP.

The ultimate question for this week is: "Is GDP a good measure of economic well being?"

Part of answering that question is a consideration of whether economic well being for the nation is the same as quality of life for the individual? If not, how would you measure quality of life for the individual?

Assignment Summary:

1) Review the concept and details of computing GDP (GDP.pptx). Then listen to an excellent discussion of GDP and a variety of issues involved in computing GDP, including ones that are part of this week's discussion: GDP Discussion.

2) Read the article in Chapter 23 in your textbook: "Measuring Macroeconomic Well-Being" (pages 500-501) - (Week 2 article.pdf ).

3) Read the Quality of Life Index article (QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf) as part of your study for this discussion. There are additional videos discussing this question in this week's YouTube Videos collection.

4) Watch the videos above and under the Week 2 YouTube videos link watch videos 1 and 2 for a better understanding of GDP and video 5 for a discussion of how to measure well being (it is a live recording of a discussion group and, unfortunately, the audio is not always the best). For a detailed discussion of consumer spending, consumer savings and the CPI both current (December 27, 2013) and historic changes, watch the video from C-SPAN: Consumer Spending Habits.

5) You may want do an internet search for other well being measures such as the "happiness index" or the "economic freedom" index. These indexes will deepen your understanding of this week's topic.

6) Post your views to the discussion board and refer to at least two different concepts from this week's Chapters. Your illustration of concepts MUST include an explanation why you think they are relevant to the week's topic using specific information from the articles, videos and other research that you have done.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU ADD SOMETHING NEW to the discussion.

7) Post on three different days for a minimum of three posts. Failure to meet these minimum posting requirements results in point loss.
Include a word count on each post. All of your posts should sum to a minimum of 500 words.

Each post submitted should be between 150 and 250 words. Keep them short, specific, and clear.

Use paragraphs as appropriate.

Very lengthy posts do not provide an incentive to be read.

Remember to document all use of sources by using citations and references. These should be in APA format.

Please review Plagiarism Powerpoints (PLAGIARISM.ppt) and be sure to provide references (APA.ppt), including URLs where appropriate, to all works that you cite.

Be sure to respond to comments or questions from your instructor. If you do not respond to the posts sent by your instructor, your grade will be significantly affected.

Now click on "DISCUSSION Forum" text above to go to the discussion forum. You can start a new thread by clicking on the Create Thread button at the top. You can also respond to an existing post by clicking the Respond button at the bottom of the post.

Peers Posts

Rebecca Hernandez

Post

COLLAPSE

After researching the topics of GDP and Quality of life, I reached the conclusion that using GDP is a good measure of economic well-being for nations. The general purpose of GDP is to measure the total output of goods and services in any economy in a specified period of time (Walther, 2014). What really drives my decision to say that GDP is a good measure of economic well-being is really the fact that quality of life has no standard definition. Therefore, it can be argued that quality of life is a concept that is subjective, and therefore renders the measures of this concept to be biased by nature.

While GDP lacks the ability to measure health, family life, and overall satisfaction with products, it is in my opinion the best measure of economic well-being that we have available (The Economist Intelligence Unit's quality-of-life index, 2005). Does the fact that people are consuming more products necessarily mean that people are happier? Of course not. With that being asked, can we say that people who cannot afford to purchase necessities in life are happier without those things? Many people would say that those who cannot afford to purchase the goods/services that they need have a poorer quality of life.

The value of GDP is neutral because it does not make judgments regarding the quality or whether or not a product or service is good for you (Walther, 2014). Ultimately, consumers make the final decision as to whether or not goods and services improve their quality of life (Walther, 2014). In terms of measuring the "success" or economic well-being of nations, it is not easy to find an alternative measure better than GDP (Whitehouse, 2011).

Word Count- 282

Jennifer Castro

Discussion

COLLAPSE

I believe the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is not considered to be a good measure of economic well-being all the way through many because it only measures the sales and income from economic purchases rather than looking at any ethical implications. A good example would be the increase in gun sales, which raises the GDP and would be considered positive. However, in this case, when the GDP rose, gun sales might have been due to sales among the criminally minded or crooks. All these types of moral implications are not measured within the GDP. Also, the GDP does not measure all the kinds of wealth establish among the general public. A third-world country could see a rise in its GDP over a period of years without the quality of life improving for any of its citizens. In this case, the GDP would not be a true indicator of economic well-being. The GDP does not make it possible to see where the wealth is distributed either, so it is impossible to know whether or not there are large gaps in income between classes of people.

The GDP has always been based on the market communication alone; actions that might be at the end of the day harmful to society can be seen as positive in the GDP if it raises the amount of money that is coming through the markets. This also makes it without a solution for the GDP to make a distinction real wealth from ghost wealth.

Word Count: 248

Reference:

Finance & Development. (n.d.). Retrieved August 03, 2016, from http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/basics/gdp.htm