Episode 108: How GDP Fetishism Drives Climate Crisis and Inequality
Citations Needed29 Apr 2020

Episode 108: How GDP Fetishism Drives Climate Crisis and Inequality

"Economists' forecasts for GDP growth in 2020 vary widely," says The Economist. "Algeria's GDP growth falls to 0.8% in 2019," one Reuters headline reads. "GDP — the broadest measure of economic activity — grew at an annual rate of just 1.9% during the third quarter," NPR warns. Everywhere we turn for economic news, the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP, is held up as the key proxy for prosperity and sound fiscal policy. Since its codification as the new gold standard for measuring prosperity at the Bretton Wood conference in 1944, the GDP has been the most popular metric used by American and British media when measure a nation's prosperity. The GDP, and its close cousin, the Gross National Product, have not been without its critics for decades, but prying it from its top position as The Most Important Policy Goal has been an impossible task. Despite many labor activists, environmentalists and economists leveling critiques at its myopic, capitalist ideology, the metric has remained central to how the media and lawmakers determine fiscal policy. But what is the GDP exactly? How did it become the go-to proxy for prosperity in Western media? What are its ideological inputs, and how did post-war notions of colonialism and extractivism helps cement its place in our collective mindset? And what, more importantly, do activists argue we should replace it with? On this episode of Citations Needed we will explore these questions and examine how centralizing Gross Domestic Product––by its very design––obscures climate crisis, labor abuses, racism, drudgery, and a whole host of society's ills. We welcome economic anthropologist Dr. Jason Hickel back to the show.

Avsnitt(367)

Episode 224: Corporate Self-Regulation and the Fine Art of 'Preempting" Public Outrage

Episode 224: Corporate Self-Regulation and the Fine Art of 'Preempting" Public Outrage

In this episode, we detail the classic PR gambit of corporations anticipating regulation, offering to "self-police," implementing token or superficial reforms, waiting for the outrage to blow over, th...

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News Brief: ADL, Corporate Media, Dem Elites Manufature "Antisemitism" Scandal to Discipline Mamdani

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News Brief: Natural Disaster-izing the Deliberate US-Israeli Starvation Campaign in Gaza

In this News Brief, we are joined by Ashley Bohrer and Ben Teller of Jewish Voice for Peace Chicago to discuss media indifference to the US and Israel-imposed starvation of Palestinians, how sectarian...

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News Brief: Pundits Speed-Run 15 Months of Iraq War Propaganda for Iran in Five Days

In this News Brief, we break down the insta-talking points to sell war with Iran––from Ticking Time Bomb '24' plots to cherry-picked, dubious anecdotes of Iranians supposedly begging for Israeli bombs...

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News Brief: US Media, Top Dems Assist Trump and Israel's Unprovoked Attack on Iran

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Ep. 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — 'Abundance' Pablum as Counter to Left Populism

Ep. 223: The Empire Strikes First, Part II — 'Abundance' Pablum as Counter to Left Populism

"Can Democrats Learn to Dream Big Again?," wonders Samuel Moyn in the New York Times. "The Democrats Are Finally Landing on a New Buzzword. It's Actually Compelling," argues Slate staff writer Henry G...

11 Juni 20251h 25min

Ep 222 - The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves

Ep 222 - The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves

In Ep. 222, "The Empire Strikes First Part I: Party Elites Who Lost to Trump (Twice) Blame Everyone But Themselves," we detail how our media allows the same party flacks who got the Dems into this mes...

4 Juni 20251h 21min

Episode 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

Episode 221: Anti-Science Mugging on the Right and the Ascent of American Anti-Intellectualism

In this episode we detail demagogues' favorite faux populist schtick of taking scientific studies out of context and mocking them, often with help from mainstream media. with guest Brenda Ekwurzel, di...

28 Maj 20251h 8min

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