> Take Linux + Apache, for example. I can create a business for very little money because those are available to me for free.
And if you do, that business shows up in the GDP.
And if you do, that business shows up in the GDP.
What's the commercial value of a free live streaming app that captures evidence of a (say, for the sake of argument) a police assault, which eventually leads to a riot?
GDP is like a summary of all relevant execution paths through code. But it's really a list of paths that are considered relevant for traditional reasons.
It's not a complete picture, and in many ways it isn't even a useful one - because there's a huge implicit social morality tied up in econometrics that makes assumptions about social value.
Those assumptions are becoming less and less relevant for all kinds of technological, political, and even economic reasons.
[0] - a thing that nicely differentiates those who understand math fundamentals from those who don't - realizing that all theorems have a set of assumptions behind them, and are not valid outside that assumptions
Clean your own house - no GDP.
Pay someone to clean your house - GDP.
Same amount of work is being done, but GDP only counts what is paid for.