Draggingtree Posted June 21, 2014 Share Posted June 21, 2014 No Sex, Please, We’re French It’s silly that France won’t include drugs and prostitution in its GDP. By Zachary Karabell The government of France has just made what on the face of it appears to be a nonannouncement announcement: It will not include illegal drugs and prostitution in its official calculation of the country’s gross domestic product. What made the announcement odd was that it never has included such activities, nor have most countries. Nor do most governments announce what they do not plan to do. (“The U.S. government has no intention of sending a man to Venus.”) Yet the French decision comes in the wake of significant pressure from neighboring countries and from the European Union to integrate these activities into national accounts and economic output. That raises a host of questions:Should these activities be included, and if those are, why not others? And what exactly are we measuring—and why? http://www.slate.com/articles/business/the_edgy_optimist/2014/06/france_gdp_the_nation_won_t_include_drugs_and_prostitution_in_its_calculations.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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