Yes, the American and Canadian politicians are patting themselves on the back because “the economy” for 2017 was better. and even a few more people employed.  Did you or I notice that the economy was better last year?  What is “the economy” anyway?  We think it means more jobs, better pay.  Did that happen to you?

Actually the economy is a bunch of numbers, don’t they say that numbers don’t lie?   The economy is measured in numbers called the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) which measures the amount of money that is spent in the country that year.  Yes, every penny that is spent.  All that money, if it adds up better, is “good.”  If there was a huge disease epidemic, and millions of dollars were spent on antibiotics, that was “good.”  If there was a great war, and we had to spend trillions of dollars on defence, that was “good.”  If we sold more oil than ever before, and the CO2 soared up, it increased the GDP,  which helped the economy.

Yes, Trump  takes the credit for his economy better, the GDP higher, and a few more people employed last year.  How did that happen?  Easy.

First of all, increasing the money to the military certainly looked good as money spent.  All these cute little wars in everyone else’ backyard, certainly spent a lot of money.  They don’t count all the young lives that were innocently cut down, so many gullible  soldiers and bystanders.

Also, there is nothing like a good run of environmental tragedies to kick up sales.  Consider the repeated ferocious hurricanes in the US and the rest of the world last spring.  All that destruction had to be repaired, that had to cost a lot.  I guess the insurance companies were dinged on that one, but they’ll boost the rates, and people won’t dare be without it.  Then look at all the droughts, the crop failures, then the unbeatable forest fires, in California, Colorado, and many other the places.  Then even a mudslide followed.  Think of the destruction, even to the wealthy people, who can usually avoid it.

2017, was the hottest year recorded, the most hurricanes, and the worst forest fires.  Handling all of these tragedies certainly took money and manpower, thus the spending was up, the GDP was up, and “the economy” was good.  Were we happier or healthier?  Does it take an increase of tragedies, storms and wars for our governments to congratulate themselves?  Maybe there is something wrong with how our present system evaluates progress.

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