Arlene McCarthy's software patent "factsheet" [LWN.net]

Arlene McCarthy's software patent "factsheet"

Posted Sep 3, 2003 18:42 UTC (Wed) by allesfresser (guest, #216)
In reply to: Arlene McCarthy's software patent "factsheet" by libra
Parent article: Arlene McCarthy's software patent "factsheet"

I think I remember hearing somewhere that the most productive kind of person in terms of GDP would be a terminally ill cancer patient who sues their medical provider, since all of those medical and legal people get paid through their misfortune. Such is the mistake of relying on GDP contribution to provide value for something, especially something as ethereal as ideas and processes which provide universal value without taking up any physical space at all. :-(

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Arlene McCarthy's software patent "factsheet"

Posted Sep 4, 2003 19:50 UTC (Thu) by jdthood (subscriber, #4157) [Link]

> Such is the mistake of relying on GDP contribution to provide
> value for something

One sometimes hears that the U.S. GDP per capita is up to one
half higher than that of other industrialized countries. This
might lead one to conclude that Americans are better off and that
other industrialized countries should adopt the American social
and economic model. But such a conclusion clashes with the
evidence that the quality of life for most people in those other
industrialized countries is higher. The paradox must be resolved
by looking at what stands behind those numbers.