Robert F. Kennedy on our obsession with economic growth

Apparently no objection to religious coalition's role

It’s not every day that Nashville’s business leaders rub elbows with progressive activists.
That's Amy Griffith Graydon in the City Paper on a piece about the coalition that beat back English First or English Only or whatever you want to call it. There was a religious leaders coalition organized against the measure. The Catholic bishop of Nashville, David Choby, was featured in an anti mailer. Do so-called progressives object when religious leaders organize to speak on policy matters generally or only when they disagree?

Economists are at odds over the efficacy of the proposed fiscal stimulus. Recent Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman believes strongly in the potential of a spending stimulus. Other prominent economists are dubious. Tyler Cowen, who is a skeptic, speaks to the disagreement, and asks the fiscal enthusiasts... where's the beef? It is as close as the George Mason University economist gets to a rebuke and he isn't out of line. Cowen sees what I see. The anti-stimulus group is using historical data while the pro-stimulus side attacks the competence of those in opposition.

Speaking of the recession, read this paragraph from a Time cover story...

...The slump is the longest, if not the deepest, since the Great Depression. Traumatized by layoffs that have cost more than 1.2 million jobs during the slump, U.S. consumers have fallen into their deepest funk in years. "Never in my adult life have I heard more deep- seated feelings of concern," says Howard Allen, retired chairman of Southern California Edison. "Many, many business leaders share this lack of confidence and recognize that we are in real economic trouble." Says University of Michigan economist Paul McCracken: "This is more than just a recession in the conventional sense. What has happened has put the fear of God into people."

Try this one...

...The deeper tremors emanate from the kind of change that occurs only once every few decades. America is going through a historic transition from the heedless borrow-and-spend society of the 1980s to one that stresses savings and investment.

Interesting thing is that the story is dated, about the 1991 recession. GMU economist Alex Tabborek sets it up beautifully.

Two points: There is abundant evidence that markets are working. Housing starts are way down and housing prices are falling. Good, the inventory is too large. Homes are becoming more affordable for those who want to own. What we are seeing is called a correction. Of course it is bad for those of us who have realized a loss of equity but it is not "bad" in some absolute or metaphysical sense.

GDP does not measure, can not capture, much of what makes life good. It only measures the market value of things. Things that happen outside of markets, conventionally understood, are important but not easily quanitifiable.

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

That's Robert F. Kennedy in an eloquent critique of our obsession with GDP.