Oh dear!
#Budget burn for @BBCNews Business Editor, Simon Jack as he incorrectly refers to the UK as the slowest growing economy - @afneil delivers the corrections. #Ouch @bbclaurak @bbckamal pic.twitter.com/hhDZUw0eYu— David Laud (@davidlaud) October 29, 2018
Another "BBC Fact" that would have gone unchallenged were it not for Oor Andy.
ReplyDeleteAs I've noted before GDP is a very poor measure of what's happening to the wealth of your citizens. What matters is the change in disposable income of citizens and what Harold Wilson used to call "the social wage".
GDB per head is at least preferably to GDP otherwise the swiss would be poor
ReplyDeleteIndeed, but when you have in this country (a) millions of non UK citizens (b) millions of tourists (c) millions of "business visitors" (about 8 million per annum - a little publicised fact) (d) lots of companies syphoning profits offshore and (e) lots of immigrants sending remittances abroad, it is vital we have some official measure of the real income available to citizens and whether it is going up or down. In my view this income should include the social wage but exclude the (average?) cost of housing, as well as taxes and other compulsory deductions. I guess I am thinking of it as an "Available for Daily Living" income figure.
DeleteThat's one for the experts to argue over the definition, but the point is to find a much better measure of the prosperity of the citizen. We have nothing at the moment.