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> GDP can in some ways be thought of as a measure of conversion of natural resources into monetary capital.

How so?

When I pay my accountant to do my taxes, it adds to GDP. How is this “conversion of natural resources into monetary capital”?

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If I pay you $1 trillion to write a song and you pay me $1 trillion to draw a picture, we have just increased the GDP by $2 trillion yet nobody is better off.

You would never do it, though, because you’d owe whole bunch of money to the government.

If we do this under our respective businesses and our net profits are both $0, what money would be owed?

If you owe 30k to irs - you have a problem. If you owe 30 trillions - irs has a problem.

Well now you have a song and they have a picture.

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