Not all of the arguments here are correct, but it shows you the declining validity of government statistics for real life. It is true that we obtain tremendous value from all the free goods of the digital age such as apps, Twitter, and Facebook and are not measure in GDP. However, they do forget to mention that Apple, Twitter, and Facebook do “spend” money into GDP when they buy things, hire workers, and pay the power bill. There ain’t no such thing as a free app.
Caution: the author does raise the robot bogey at the end of the article where “consumers” are made better off by these free technological goods and workers are made worse off, as if both groups were not the same people! HT: JRH See here for “Gross Domestic Freebie” in the New York, its free.
