Marketplace, October 2022
Listener and reader John Ledbetter from Knoxville, Tennessee, asks:
Why does it have to be population growth causing so much of economic growth (as the “baby shortage!” people would have it)? Why can’t it be poor people gaining wealth in a tight labor market (or “labor shortage!” as employers would have it) and then spending more? Thanks!
First, let’s talk about what economic growth is: an increase in the goods and services produced in a country. Gross domestic product is the measure of the value of those goods and services. GDP is typically used to assess how fast an economy is growing.
