Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down

Re:Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down by mistrial9 on Sunday March 22, 2020 @02:38PM (#22657379)

nobody, except banks perhaps.. on a related note, the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, covering thousands of hectares of pristine Alaska coastline with suffocating, deadly raw oil, was famously "good for the economy" .. because almost every measure of economic health increased in the aftermath of the events.. of course, millions of sea creatures died, and the area was poisoned for who-knows-how-long.. make sense?

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Re:Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down by BurningFrog on Sunday March 22, 2020 @02:47PM (#22657449)

I guess "good for the economy" here means it increased GDP for the affected area.

This is a common critique of GDP as a measure of economic health. And it's a fair one. But in the bigger picture, GDP remains the best measure I know of.

Accidents and disasters will happen, but their rate is fairly constant, and the noise they add to the measurement is far from invalidating it.

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Re:Traffic and Pollution Plummet as U.S. Cities Shut Down by TheOtherHobbes on Sunday March 22, 2020 @03:09PM (#22657639)

That last sentence makes no sense at all.

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