1) A national economy’s income accounting is done largely through the concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). After reflecting on the film, Who’s Counting?, what are some of the limits or problems with evaluating a national economy in this way, in particular as an indicator of wellbeing? What would a more adequate accounting look like?
2) Marilyn Waring points to a gendered division of labor. Waring speaks of the ‘invisibility’ or ‘unproductiveness’ of a person within the economy. What does this mean? Explain what a gendered division of labor is, and how the GDP is a gendered and limited measure of economic activity.
3) Explain Waring’s argument that it is in the interests of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to ensure there is always war going on? To what extent do you agree, and why?
4) Waring explains that certain qualities of things cannot be monetized and that the language used to explain their quality does not easily fit in the mathematical formulae of economic science. Explain what she means. What are some examples? She says economics, as a discipline, is thus used as a tool for the powerful. What does she mean? Do you agree – why or why not?