Gross National Value

[Recycled from 18 December 2004]

I first ran into the concept of Gross National Value in Katherine Maclean's novel The Missing Man, where it was called "gross national use value".

GNV is simply the total value of everything (public property, private property, personal property). This idstinguishes it from Gross National Product, which is concerned only with the price paid for things which actually were bought and sold in a given year.

GNV can be calculated quite well by considering the prioces brought by comparable property which is bought and sold each year. It may rise or fall, according to markets and supplies, and it must remain hypothetical (since the price of anything would drop if *all* of it were put on the market), but it can still tell us useful things about what we have and what it's worth.

Note all the things that contribute to GNV that are ignored by GNP, and vice versa: a new pair of shoes that costs $45 and is worn out and has to be replaced in six months adds $90 to the GNP. Shoes bought two years ago for $60 add nothing to GNP, but if they are in good shape will add at least $20 to GNV. Demolishing a Victorian house and putting up an apartment cube adds half a million dollars to GNP, but GNV regards it as a net gain of only $200k, subtracting the value of the old house. Development of greenfield land may be a net GNV loss, while cleaning up a toxic waste site may boost GNV by millions at a cost of a few thousand.

Yes, it's true, GNV is just a made-up number, and decisions based on it will always have to be suspect, but when has that ever stopped us before? At the very least, isn't it time we started choosing our own made-up numbers to worship?

//The Magic 8-Ball says, "23 - 56 - 93 - 4"\\