Re: General Welfare

["Charles W. Upton" <cupton@kent.edu>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Shann Turnbull <sturnbull@mba1963.hbs.edu>
To: <ownership@cog.kent.edu>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 1999 8:15 PM
Subject: Re: General Welfare


> In response to Charles Upton's contribution, could he confirm my
> understanding that GDP statistics do not concern themselves with the
> sovereignty of who is better off.  So if growth in GDP is generated by
> foreign owned corporations then the voting citizens (so this excludes
> corporations) of the country may be no better off and indeed could be
worse
> off if their share of pie shrunk while the foreign owned pie grew.
>
GDP statistics measure the goods and services produced in a country.
Period.  I have no idea what sovereignty means in this context.  Dan Bell
used the word in a technical sense and I responded in that sense.

Clearly if GDP goes up while National Income goes down, holders of national
income lose.

But be careful:  corporations are ultimately owned by individuals, and their
"earnings" are eventually earned by individuals.

Of course, this is all quite basic material , covered in any introductory
economics course.