Podcast
Today, Explained
During an episode focused on "Degrowing pains," the podcast referenced Dirk Philipsen's The Little Big Number to explain how GDP came to dominate global measurement. Discussed by Noelle King, the book argues that GDP is a profoundly misleading and dangerous metric because it only tracks monetary volume, ignoring crucial elements like the care economy and environmental damage. The segment underscored the author's urgent call for implementing better metrics to guide national economies.
Episode: Blame Capitalism: Degrowing pains
This book, written by economic historian Dirk Philipsen, explained how GDP (Gross Domestic Product) came to dominate global economic measurement. It detailed how GDP emerged after the Great Depression to understand collapsing capitalist economies, but the author argued it is a misleading metric because it only measures volume in monetary terms, ignoring things like the care economy or environmental degradation.
He wrote a book called The Little Big Number, how GDP came to rule the world and what to do about it.
GDP is gross domestic product and it's the sum total of all of the goods and services produced in a country in a single year. Everything.
This is a profoundly misleading and ultimately stupid and dangerous metric. We are in desperate dire need to find much better metrics, much better guidelines for what we do in our respective national economies.