New Catallaxy

Think of the GDP

At the Jobs Summit, Minister for Finance, Women and Public Service Senator Katy Gallagher reportedly said, “as a country we simply can’t afford to leave women’s talent on the shelf. If women’s workforce participation matched men we would increase GDP by 8.7% or $353 billion by 2050?.

Talked to my eldest daughter today. She takes care of her three young children while working part time, during four days a week. If it were affordable, she’d like to cut her work hours down somewhat so that she could better support her husband who works long hours and spend more time with her three children. But hold on, what about GDP?

Just think if we could get all married women with children into the full-time workforce? Import paid carers from foreign parts to do the nurturing. What a double boon for the country’s GDP.

As to migration, we need more and yet more. Yes, schools, hospitals, public transport, roads will get more stressed and crowded; yes, urban sprawl will go on increasing; yes, crime will probably rise; yes, social and cultural cohesion will likely suffer. But think of the GDP.

So, married women, when you’re feeling exhausted, frazzled and bothered, as you’re driving through heavy traffic each evening to pick up your kids from extended childcare, thankful for micro-wave ovens for quick cooking, remember also to be thankful that you’re playing your part in boosting GDP by displaying your talent. Of course, not necessarily as a senator like Ms Gallagher or corporate high-flyer who’s broken through the glass ceiling but, say, as a clerical assistant or shop assistant or nurse. You too have your part to play in the grand unfolding of economic growth and national wellbeing, so definitively measured by GDP.

Peter Smith

22 responses to “Think of the GDP”

  1. Anchor What Avatar
    Anchor What

    Mothers are the best – don’t make them hand over their beloved children to strangers.
    Men want to work and support their families. Don’t make them redundant.

    22
  2. 2dogs Avatar
    2dogs

    Think of all the valuable tax revenue that is lost because these selfish women care for their own children.

    14
  3. Turnip Avatar
    Turnip

    Imagine the GDP boost if we put all these women to work breaking windows!

    11
  4. billie Avatar
    billie

    if the GDP gets bigger, it will be p*ssed away all the same as it is now

    if we want better lifestyle and quality of life, stop taing our money away and let us decide what to spend it on

    tell you what, the UN would be out of a job pretty well overnight and all the public servants who travel the world obligating the voters/taxpayers to all manner of BS

    21
  5. JC Avatar
    JC

    They just consider that there’s a distinct possibility people can have a happy life outside of work.

    4
  6. Angus Black Avatar
    Angus Black

    The thing is, if you look after, bring up and nurture your children, how will the state take ownership of their minds, how will the flock obediently walk into the pen…

    It’s not about the economy, it’s about destroying society from within.

    15
  7. John Brumble Avatar
    John Brumble

    There. Needs. To. Be. Viable. Jobs. Available:

    2
  8. Dot Avatar
    Dot

    I put it to you that the taxation-childcare subsidy-corporate veal fattening pen complex actually lowers GDP growth.

    No one has actually laid out where the gains come from and what the opportunity costs are (and they are legion).

    8
  9. duncanm Avatar
    duncanm

    The ‘child care industry fallacy’ – much like the broken window, there’d be no need for childcare if women looked after their own kids.

    9
  10. Bluey Avatar
    Bluey

    I’ve got a fair bit of respect for one of the blokes at my work, he and his missus made the decision she’d stay home with the kids and he’d work. Pulls long hours and occasionally works a second job weekends, but there’s not many who do that type of household nowadays.

    12
  11. min Avatar
    min

    Typical of the left , never think through the consequences. It is the same no matter what they think the policies are to run a country eg climate change , ndis, i fact name one where the consequences are a benefit and not a cost.

    9
  12. Boambee John Avatar
    Boambee John

    min

    name one where the consequences are a benefit and not a cost.

    But they mean well.

    Actually, they mean to ensure that they and their political allies do well, and bugger the rest of us.

    5
  13. thefrollickingmole Avatar
    thefrollickingmole

    Imagine living in a world where policies and economic settings were structured to benefit individual employees as a whole.
    Where a single income was enough to support a family & purchase a modest house/car etc.

    Where scarcity of employees meant competition for those available.
    Where squeals of ‘we dont have enough of ‘x’ employees” was met with derision and you would be expected to train them yourself.
    Where 4 years of university was equal to 2 years of hands on apprenticeship.
    And where the Public serpents were back to being paid LESS then the public sector.

    A nation which puts its finest minds in the service of government is a nation of mongs.

    8
  14. Daffy Avatar
    Daffy

    I remember my parents: dad worked in the city; that, with public transport commuting, took out 11 hours of his day doing his skilled trade job earning about the average wage (I guess that was ‘male privilege’). Mum looked after we children, volunteered at our school, did community volunteering, kept house, so dad didn’t have to (because he had a grinding routine to earn our money). But every evening, after a splendid but simple dinner: always including a cooked desert, M&D could relax in front of the TV, do their hobbies, enjoy the open fire. We joined in when our homework was done. Damn the GDP, we had a great family life.

    21
  15. Bourne1879 Avatar
    Bourne1879

    I heard Dan Andrews clip on the radio after the gabfest.

    I don’t remember the figures he gave but something like 25,000 women could be in the workforce but could not be and this was costing VIC economy serious billions. How did they come up with the number as it sounded complete BS.

    Whenever they talk about the women in the workforce it is always boosting their numbers in tradional male areas like military, emergency and mining etc. I just read last week there are more female GPs than males. They never talk about the areas where women far outnumber men. Just a few : Human Rights / Sex Discrimination type Commissions Federal and state, Civil service, University graduates, 3 female police Commisioners which far exceeds ratio of make to female in State police, nurses etc.

    Meanwhile they push for them to be frontline Fire people ! It took Qld Police 4 years to work out their 50/50 recruiting policy was a disaster. Latest Qld Police academy training balance is 80% male and I presume that is based on best person for the job.

    6
  16. Bourne1879 Avatar
    Bourne1879

    Daffy,
    Good post.
    Same for my parents. I turned out great !

    4
  17. Gerry Jackson Avatar
    Gerry Jackson

    GDP is more of an indicator of growth rather than a measurement. For example. from 1933 to 1940 US GDP averaged 4.15 per cent a year and yet the capital stock still shrank. Arthur Lewis estimated that from 1929 to 1938 net capital formation plunged by minus 15.2 per cent. Professor Robert Higgs calculated that from 1930 to 1940 net private investment was minus $3.1 billion.

    So while it is true that expanding the labour force does raise GDP it does nothing for capital formation, a fact of which the classical economists were fully aware, which is why they would have opposed mass immigration.

    3
  18. Lee Avatar
    Lee

    If women’s workforce participation matched men we would increase GDP by 8.7% or $353 billion by 2050?

    How does Gallagher figure that out?
    If “women’s workforce participation matched men” the birthrate would almost certainly decline dramatically, invalidating her claim.

    Mass immigration is a Ponzi scheme.

    5
  19. Old bloke Avatar
    Old bloke

    One of the first jobs I had, in the late 1960’s, was as Paymaster for a medium size manufacturing business in Sydney. There were several hundred employees in that business, almost exclusively males, working as machinists in the factories, and most of them were recent migrants from southern and eastern Europe.

    They were all the sole breadwinners, they had wives and children at home, and they managed to keep their households running, pay their mortgages and all the other costs associated with running families, on their fairly basic weekly wages.

    This was a different Australia of course, in those days we manufactured things here, but women were a rarity in the workforce apart from office work, teaching, and nursing. Nevertheless, I think that our GDP was much higher in those days even though most married women were stay at home Mums.

    8
  20. Entropy Avatar
    Entropy

    While ever the GDP calculation assumes a dollar spent by government is worth the same add as a dollar spent by business in investment, the GDP calculation is quite worthless. As Kevin Rudd discovered, it is easy to manipulate the GDP figure with massive injections of G to avoid that nasty recession word.

    1
  21. Bruce Avatar
    Bruce

    “Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.”

    H. l. Mencken

    1
  22. The Beer whisperer Avatar
    The Beer whisperer

    f women’s workforce participation matched men we would increase GDP by 8.7% or $353 billion by 2050?.

    So there you have it, sheilas. None of this “looking after the kids” bullshit. Yafta get out there and work for the greater good.

    Your betters have spoken. They know what’s best for you, and you don’t.

    1

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