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The Dark Side of GDP

Gross Domestic Product. Such a healthy sounding measure. All the activities within a country that generated a monetary exchange. All the cups of coffee that were purchased in America's 10 million caffeine huts, the cute little ice-fishing
shantys you can drive up to that grace every town. All the shirts and socks we buy, all the stuff we drag home from the malls, all the stuff that our industries make. That's all part of the GDP picture.

But there is more, much more. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 3rd fastest growing industry in America is gambling. How big a chunk of our gross domestic product could that be? Well, lets' see. That would include lotteries, you know all the pretty colored tickets at every single 7-11, gas station, and grocery store in America. That is called convenience gambling in the industry. There are the stand-alone gambling devices in bars, there are the casinos, riverboat and Native American varieties, Vegas, Atlantic City, pari-mutuel
wagering, horse racing, greyhound racing, jai-lai, sports wagering, and that old favorite of all, the stock market. Every penny that goes into these activities is estimated and included as a part of the gross domestic product.

We have had a poor forestry policy that has spent decades promoting a bear in a funny hat telling us that all forest fires are preventable. It turns out that forests need to have fires. When they are allowed their natural cycle, the fires are small and often are content to consume the brush at the foot of the trees. Now, with the enormous buildup of brush, it has turned into "ladder fuels" that can climb the trees and destroy the forest. Every year, we have a season of fires of unimaginable size and damage. All the costs, all the firemen, all the lawyers retainers to sue for the losses, all part of our gross domestic product.

What else is in there? Hmmm, for decades now, almost every single politician in every little burg has been "tough on crime."As a result, over two million Americans are living in cages, a world leader in incarceration. Twenty years ago, that was a 10 billion dollar industry, now it generates 50 billion a year. Every dime that is spent to provide that population with food, housing, and medical care is part of the gross domestic product. The courts, the extra police, the new prisons, the guards, all GDP.

All the extra police to make sure nobody is getting away with using marijuana as an anti-depressant and giving us tickets for forgetting

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