Dimaano, Lois Danielle P.

27 January 2015

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ECONTWO K38

Studying the field of economics is no piece of cake, as hundreds of factors that affect the
world are ought to be considered. Some find it boring because of the metric ton of dry facts to be
memorized, while others tend to see it as a meticulous field because of its required accuracy and
precision. While all these may seem to be true, the common misconception of many people is that
economics is composed of nothing but endless statistics and measurements.
However, there is more to economics than just defining what is there. Many overlook the fact
that it can describe and depict the world through exact science. The law of demand and supply, while
illustrated by complicated graphs and charts, also portrays human emotion and interest when it comes
to production and consumption.
As per requirement in our ECONTWO (Basic Macroeconomics) class, we were assigned to
read GDP and Economic Well-Being by American macroeconomist Gregory Mankiw. The article is
answers the question of as to what extend a countrys GDP can measure anything related to its
economy. Mankiw also provides an in-depth discussion about those out of the diagram; those that
GDP does not touch on.
Living in the 21st century, it is evident that people nowadays are obsessed with the idea of a
perfect lifestyle. Personally, a perfect well-being only occurs in a utopian world. People find
something that is not there; maybe because they are searching in the wrong places. And if theyspend
the rest of their lives searching, they will never achieve contentment.
Senator Robert Kennedy, in one of his speeches, talked about GDP and I quote, and it can
tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans. What constitutes
this everything that the Senator spoke of? See, it does not answer most of the worlds most
frequently asked questions such as Which schools should I enroll my son into? However, it has the
capability to answer Does this country provide a good educational system and produce exceptional
graduates? The point of this is that sometimes, answers do not come directly to us and the way we
want it to. There are other options, and GDP shows to people the bigger picture.
The article is not all praises to this measurement. It also discussed what GDP excludes. When
Kennedy said everything about America, did he literally mean everything? Most of what GDP left
out are those important on societys well-being. The environment, by way of example, is being risked
for firms production of goods. GDP does not measure how endangered the environment is, but can
measure how much the firm has produced in the past months.