EWOT One

Several days before, I was having dinner with some of my friends in Danforth. When we finished the dinner I found that he had left many foods. Thus I joked: “Waste is a crime.” He then respond:” Waste helps increase the GDP.” Really? Is the waste of food really helps increase the GDP in a form of “extra” consumption? When I look it from the standpoint of economics, I don’t think it’s the truth.

Admittedly, the waste of food definitely provokes the growth of food industry. Since the workers have to produce more food to make sure that there’s enough to waste than to just ensure there’s enough to eat. Furthermore, the other industries which relate to the production of food, for example, the producer of plates, forks, or knives, also benefit from the extra consumption of food. Then the growth of these industries will generally result in more employment, new factories and more advertising, which are all factors that contribute to the increase of GDP.

However, the numerical increase of GDP sometimes cannot be called an “increase” at all. Let’s assume that one person bought an apple for 1 dollar and then didn’t want to eat it thus wasted it. It seems his waste just contributed 1 dollar to the GPD. But we should notice that his spending of 1 dollar on the apple also means exactly that much less he could have spent on other products. He may be able to buy a pen with the money, which behavior also contributes exactly 1 dollar to the GDP. Thus, the increase of GDP contributed by the apple is actually a diversion of human spending,.

Let’s see something behind the apple. I’ve mentioned that the general waste of food may result in more employment and new factories, which all seems contribute to the GDP. Nevertheless, we should also notice that we live in a world of scarcity: the more employment and more new factories in food industry, the less employment and factories in other industry. People who argue that waste provokes the GDP actually fail to consider the “unseen” GDP loss of other industries. Since people who waste food have hardly got any benefit from the food they wasted, resource, or capital, is being used in a more inefficient way than otherwise situations, making the economic outcome far away from its best consequence. Thus, the numerical increase of GDP resulted from the “waste economy” may actually suggest a decrease of it if we put the unseen losses of the GDP of other industries in consideration.