ABSTRACT
Two cars pass each other quietly in a country lane. Nothing happens and they contribute little to the GDP. But then one of the drivers, not paying attention, wanders over to the other side of the road and causes a serious accident involving a third approaching car. ‘Terrific,’ says the GDP: air ambulances, doctors, nurses, breakdown services, car repairs or a new car, legal battles, visits from relations to the injured, compensation for loss of earnings, insurance agents, newspaper reports, tidying up the roadside trees — all these are regarded as formal, professional activities which have to be paid for. Even if no party involved gains any improvement in his or her standard of living and some actually suffer considerable loss, our ‘wealth’, namely our GDP, still increases (from Earth Politics, Weizsäcker, 1994,p 197).
