This is the sci fi version of the broken windows economic fallacy (not to be confused with mayor Rudy Giuliani’s broken windows crime fighting policy of cracking down on small crimes like vandalism in order to make larger crimes more conspicuous and easier to crack down on also). The economic fallacy is that any economic activity is good even if it doesn’t result in a net gain of wealth. If you start with the wealth of a window in good working order, but then break it to stimulate the economic activity of replacing it, you’ve increased GDP but not wealth because you’re back to the same level of wealth of a window in good working order. In this case, krugman is saying that we can stimulate our way out of a slump by building up anti-alien weapons, and then in a year and a half if it turns out the alien threat was a hoax, we still can have improvement in certain econometrics that krugman likes. The thing is though, having a bunch of anti-alien weapons that have no use doesn’t increase our national wealth. Wealth is more important to me than pointless economic activity. If we’re going to try to stimulate the economy by large projects, we should make their results actually beneficial. Oil pipelines, nuclear power plants, improved rail lines, etc.
Hollow expenditures just for the sake of economic activity is a Keynesian myth that we need to outgrow. Anyone who buys a beer for $2 from a guy with a cooler outside the stadium and then buys a beer for $12 inside the stadium realizes that the value of money is relative, contextual, and in flux. So Keynesians claiming that $1 spent is always worth $1 are fooling themselves, and they are prioritizing simplified econometrics over the objective wealth of the nation. An idea I’ve been playing with for a while is a weighted GDP that more highly values products with low price elasticity of demand. Oil, for example, is something that has low elasticity because people still demand a lot of oil even at high prices. That makes it more valuable to our wealth than luxury items that people can choose to forego, or anti-alien weapons that will never be used. So take the inverse of the elasticity so that low elasticity products are given heavier weight, and when you add up the weighted products you have a more accurate picture of the objective wealth.
This is the sci fi version of the broken windows economic fallacy (not to be confused with mayor Rudy Giuliani’s broken windows crime fighting policy of cracking down on small crimes like vandalism in order to make larger crimes more conspicuous and easier to crack down on also). The economic fallacy is that any economic activity is good even if it doesn’t result in a net gain of wealth. If you start with the wealth of a window in good working order, but then break it to stimulate the economic activity of replacing it, you’ve increased GDP but not wealth because you’re back to the same level of wealth of a window in good working order. In this case, krugman is saying that we can stimulate our way out of a slump by building up anti-alien weapons, and then in a year and a half if it turns out the alien threat was a hoax, we still can have improvement in certain econometrics that krugman likes. The thing is though, having a bunch of anti-alien weapons that have no use doesn’t increase our national wealth. Wealth is more important to me than pointless economic activity. If we’re going to try to stimulate the economy by large projects, we should make their results actually beneficial. Oil pipelines, nuclear power plants, improved rail lines, etc.
Hollow expenditures just for the sake of economic activity is a Keynesian myth that we need to outgrow. Anyone who buys a beer for $2 from a guy with a cooler outside the stadium and then buys a beer for $12 inside the stadium realizes that the value of money is relative, contextual, and in flux. So Keynesians claiming that $1 spent is always worth $1 are fooling themselves, and they are prioritizing simplified econometrics over the objective wealth of the nation. An idea I’ve been playing with for a while is a weighted GDP that more highly values products with low price elasticity of demand. Oil, for example, is something that has low elasticity because people still demand a lot of oil even at high prices. That makes it more valuable to our wealth than luxury items that people can choose to forego, or anti-alien weapons that will never be used. So take the inverse of the elasticity so that low elasticity products are given heavier weight, and when you add up the weighted products you have a more accurate picture of the objective wealth.
At least the Keynesian fucks of the past would piss away pretend money on things like the interstate system...
Now they just piss it away on things like multi-billion dollar programs to help kids decide to cut their dicks and titts off.
Why can't we piss it away on elite guillotine execution services... inc.
I’m partial to energy production, but your modernized guillotine idea is intriguing kek
That's a system some gay pedophile would dream up.........