Well, in real terms, if the nation has N people, working M hours on average each.
Either you employ more people (economic crises cause employment to shrink and the inverse happens in booms), making M bigger and economic output larger, or you get more done per hour, making productivity higher.
Any sort of machine you invent that helps people get more done per hour increases real GDP if the machine is adopted and use many places.
For example, if you had invented the tractor, the consequences would temporarily have been mass unemployment, but later the people that would have been working in the fields can be doing other things.
You might not agree that the things they are doing are adding value—for example they might be wearing cosplay costumes in Times Square and charging tourists to take pictures of them. However, any good or service that other humans are willing to voluntarily pay for is adding to GDP, as if it were not providing value in excess of the cost, the buyer wouldn’t pay.
Well, in real terms, if the nation has N people, working M hours on average each.
Either you employ more people (economic crises cause employment to shrink and the inverse happens in booms), making M bigger and economic output larger, or you get more done per hour, making productivity higher.
Any sort of machine you invent that helps people get more done per hour increases real GDP if the machine is adopted and use many places.
For example, if you had invented the tractor, the consequences would temporarily have been mass unemployment, but later the people that would have been working in the fields can be doing other things.
You might not agree that the things they are doing are adding value—for example they might be wearing cosplay costumes in Times Square and charging tourists to take pictures of them. However, any good or service that other humans are willing to voluntarily pay for is adding to GDP, as if it were not providing value in excess of the cost, the buyer wouldn’t pay.