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Again it is with a laugh that this morning I read The Daily, Statistics Canada December 16/2002. Yesterday, I wrote a little article debunking the absolute preaching of the gospels of the ever growing Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and ever growing average productivity. I debunked such myths as I referred to the study "Wealth Inequality in Canada" by Canadian economist Steve Kerstetter.

You, readers, can make up your own mind about the relative importance of the GDP and productivity as opposed to living wage and full employment. However, this is what the Daily states today:

The improvement of the labour market situation during the late 1990s was a major factor in boosting average real incomes for Canadians. The 1990s presented the longest period of continuous positive growth in multifactor productivity during the last 20 years. This surge picked up during the mid-1990s and peaked in 2000. As a result, average real income from 1995 to 2000 grew at a substantial average of 2.8% a year, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. When real income grows at this pace in a sustained way, it means that each generation experiences a doubling of its standard of living (that is, doubling every 25 years).

I just wonder if our standard of living has ever doubled in any past 25 years span; but now things are different and our average productivity is skyrocketing. We have lots of work to do in trying to understand our social economy, but then how can we ever change the statistical reporting of Statistics Canada?

References

The Daily Productivity growth and prosperity 1981 to 2000, Statistics Canada, December 16, 2002 http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/021216/d021216a.htm

Kerstetter,Steve, Wealth Inequality in Canada, December 2002, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, http://www.policyalternatives.ca/