This Week's GDP: Just Like Botox
Rodney Johnson | May 01, 2019 | Botox seems weird to me. People pay to be injected with tiny amounts of a virus so as to deaden nerves for a prolonged period of time. I understand the goal… to change the way they look (in most cases). But eventually the effects wear off and they have to do it again. It’s an expensive, losing battle, but it’s their money, and not my concern. And yet, neighborhoods and newspapers gossip about who is having what work done to improve their appearance. That seems like a lot of effort. If it’s that important to society to know, then maybe we need personal scorecards, perhaps in the form of temporary tattoos on the backs of people’s hands, noting with different symbols what’s been done, like a “B” for Botox or an “F” for filler. That way, as with a great new haircut or hair color, we could immediately compliment the person… or simply talk about them later. But at least we’d have good information… I thought about Botox last week when I saw the GDP numbers. At 3.2% growth in the first quarter, the economy looks fabulous. But just like Botoxers who look younger than they are, there’s more to the story than the headlines. Our economy isn’t on the verge of recession... but we’re not shooting to the moon, either. Upon closer inspection, the results weren’t as spectacular as they first appeared, they just looked that way because of some temporary issues. READ MORE »
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