Reply #1: It's kind of like how they calculate farm income. [View All]

[Bullshot]

I remember hearing some ag economists beam about how farm income is up, even though this "income" at the time, anyway, included the potential market value of a farm operator's home. It also included all of the government payments farmers received. All those stats did was cover up how low farm prices received by farmers are in relation to the prices they pay for their seed, fuel, equipment, buildings, land and all of the other things needed to produce a crop or raise livestock.

On the GDP, I remember when the government went to the GDP in favor of the Gross National Product during the administration of Bush I. The Wall Street Journal reported that the GDP showed growth in the U.S. economy, but admitted that the economy would have shown a decline had the GNP been used as the measuring stick of this nation's economic growth.