Analyze the reasons why the gross national product may not be sufficient to measure a country’s level of

development.

This essay seeks to give the reasons why the gross national product is not enough to measure a
country’s level of development, whereby the gross national product is defined as the total money value
of all goods and services produced by its residents in one year. The gross national product includes the
money value of total annual domestic product of a country, plus incomes earned abroad by its
residents, minus payments made to non-residents and foreign institutions .The gross national product is
not sufficient to measure a country’s level of development since it does not include the peoples well
being, it is more concerned with market value of production, does not account hidden costs, it also
ignores pathologies leading to more gross national product just to mention but a few, However there
are other alternatives which have been put in place to measure the level of development such as life
expectancy, infant mortality, adult literacy, quality of life, health, education, nutrition, housing,
employment, transportation, security, freedom and recreation

To begin with, The gross national product does not include the people`s well being ,since it mainly based
on activities and goods and services that hardly contribute to human well-being in any form. The gross
national product is simply the total amount of money spent on goods and services irrespective whether
it increase or diminish actual well-being. The production of military hardware and lethal weapons in
other countries represents one of the biggest sources of government expenditure but that does not
contribute to human well-being in terms of people’s living standards. This production of military
weapons can only increase the figures of the gross national product not the people`s well being. The
money spent on and the revenue generated from the whole advertisement industry has become
colossal although it publicizes various consumption items to attract customers, by itself, it does not
produce any goods for human consumption. This huge spending on advertisement constitutes a part of
gross national product but, it does not offer any tangible consumption goods, Weaver (1973:104)
mentions that, the industrial economy is based on people wanting more and more material goods. . .
advertising plays some part in this process. there are dozens of over-publicized goods but ineffective
products in the market that claim and fail to address human disorders associated with modern lifestyle,
including alcoholism. The addictive consumption of over publicized goods may not improve well-being,
but it increases the gross national product. Through such manipulation of customers by advertising
consumers only use few of those goods thereby leaving other goods unused . Such unused or under-
used products covered in gross national product, include unread books and magazines, hardly used
electronic goods, discarded sports equipments, unused postcards and sales catalogues. All of these
goods boost the nation’s economic growth figure, but they fail to enhance people’s well-being. From
the above one can say the gross national product is insufficient to measure the country level of
development since there is too much emphasis on the goods that does not account for peoples well
being.

Mores, The gross national product is not sufficient to measure a country`s level of development if one
consider that it is more concerned with market value of production. The gross national product, tend to
put more emphasis mainly on the market value of production, and thus on the rate at which resources
are converted to commodities, without taking into account all the goods and services that are not
exchanged in the market for example when goods are produced and consumed by the same individuals
without going through the process of market valuation and exchange, they are unlikely to be taken into
account in the gross national product calculation. when people eat self-produced foods, live in self-built
housing, and wear handmade garments, they are considered poor since these products have not been
assigned with monetary values, but when they eat processed food, live in rented house, and wear
machine-made garments available in the market, they are considered rich so the gross national product
is not enough to measure a country`s well being since it does not count the other goods and services
that are not exchanged on the market.

In addition, The gross national product in terms of human labor its figures increases with the
commoditization of services involving paid labor, but the gross national product measure fails to include
unpaid labor involved in household activities such as caring for children and elderly parents at home,
growing and preparing foods for family consumption, providing volunteer services to the community
such as in developing countries , the unpaid labor of housewives used in washing, cooking, cleaning, and
caring is not counted in gross national product. In developed nations, most women add to GNP by
earning wages as paid employees, and by purchasing home appliances using expensive child-care
services, or hiring domestic helpers all of these also increase the gross national figure hence measuring a
country level of development using the gross national product is not enough. In developing countries
children often participate in household activities without being counted in gross national product, their
education is relatively inexpensive, and their sources of recreation is local games and sports and
handmade toys all these are outside the gross national product , whereas children in developed nations
inflate the gross national product figure by billions of dollars due to most expensive education, child
care, high-tech toys, cartoon shows and computer games hence the measure of gross national product is
quite misleading to compare the standards of living between the developed and the developing
countries.

Furthermore, There are many hidden costs that are not taken into account in the calculation of gross
national product, while gross national product includes the benefits of industrial and technological
production in market economies such as abundant food, comfortable shelter, increased mobility, and
improved communication, it hardly takes into account the costs involved in such production process,
including the depletion of natural resources, air and water pollution, soil erosion, risk of radiation,
destruction of species, economic disruption, urban congestion, low-quality processed foods, family
breakdown, destruction of community and increase in crime. The gross national figure is flawed because
while it takes into account the depreciation of industrial plant, it fails to consider the depletion of
natural capital like fossil fuels and forest resources. Developed countries extract more oil and gas from
the ground, the growth rate of gross national product increases, but this measure overlooks the fact that
the more these non-renewable natural resources are exploited, the less quantity of such resources will
be available for future use. Although the exploitation of resources increase the gross national product it
pose to the extinction of such resources in the future .depletion of resources by development may cause
growth-related products and activities which are ignored in the gross national assessment.