What is a good economy?

Question

What is a good economy?

Answer 1

The term "good" is vague and subjective. No answer can be given to this question. This is why economists remove subjectivity from economic terms and define them statistically. While a statistic cannot cover the qualitative conditions of a society, it does a great job of cover the health of the economy.

Answer 2

The problem with many in Washington and the media is that their only definition of a "good economy" is statistical. The gross domestic product, however, does not tell us if we have a good economy. We can increase the GDP by going into ruinous debt or by crashing our cars or by buying a truckload of whiskey.

  

Nor does  stock-market indexes tell us if we have a good economy. The stock markets are related to gambling casinos, where paper is bought and sold. It is  an attempt to make money without money.

You truely define a good economy by asking the right questions. Are there jobs for everyone who wants one? Can working people afford decent housing and adequate medical care on their salaries? Is the currency maintaining its value so that people can save for their retirement? Are taxes both low and equitable? Are usurious interest rates forbidden? Is the gap between the rich and the poor shrinking instead of expanding?

  

Right now, regardless of what the government statistics look like, our economy is unhealthy. There are too many unemployed, too many trying to live on unlivable wages, too many regressive taxes and too many loopholes for the very rich. Housing and medical costs are skyrocketing, while wages are actually dropping. Yet the government tells us that the cost of living isn't increasing. That's actually because the government changed the definitions some years ago.

  

American jobs are being exported, and cheap labor in the form of illegal immigrants is being imported. If you want to create social conflict, then create a situation in which surplus people have to fight each other over the crumbs at the bottom of the economic ladder.

  

People are encouraged to go into debt, and indeed debt - personal, corporate and government - is at staggering levels. Remembering that debt is a claim on future income for past consumption, I don't think there is much room for genuine economic growth in the future.

Answer 3

When money is general and is giving everyone good job opportunities.

Answer 4

Steady quarterly growth in the Gross National Product, low Consumer Price Index stock market steady or rising, low un employment and inflation