War boosts GDP. But should it?

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Peter Martin· Host0:37

The US and Iran are at war. It feels as if our living standards have stalled, and yet we've just been told that in the past year, Australia's economy grew by an outsized two point six percent. Part of the explanation for the disconnect between how many of us feel and what the figures say is that the figures released this week are dated. They tell us what happened to recorded gross domestic product, GDP, in the year to December when there were other wars, but not this one. But here's what's really odd. If Australia was involved in a war, if it gets involved in this one, Australia's GDP would probably surge further. War, which destroys lives and eviscerates populations, war boosts GDP. And yet we're still being told it's a measure of how well