<span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">The last time I saw Jonathan Rowe was in October, 2010. I was on a writer's retreat at the Mesa Refuge in Point Reyes, California and Jonathan dropped by to borrow the pick-up truck. We got into one of those intense conversations you can only have with someone who has cared and thought long and deep about the things you have cared and thought long and deep about. </span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Jonathan died on March 20th of the following year. On a Saturday he came home from the gym with a fever. The fever got worse so he went the hospital. Sunday morning he died. </span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Last week, when I heard that Jonathan's book, </span><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><a href="http://jonathanrowe.org/common-wealth" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(159,9,9)">Our Common Wealth</a></i><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">, was out, I ordered a copy right away. Then I searched around on the web and pinched a galley proof so I wouldn't have to wait for the shipping. I was especially eager to read Chapter 12, "Accounting for Common Wealth" and Chapter 17, "Reallocating Time." </span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Back in 1995 Jonathan was one of the co-authors of an </span><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Atlantic Monthly</i><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> article, </span><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/past/politics/ecbig/gdp.htm" style="text-decoration:none;color:rgb(159,9,9);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">"If the GDP is up, Why is America Down,"</a><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"> a great riff on the title of Richard Fariña's novel, </span><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Been Down So Long, It Looks Like Up To Me</i><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">. I don't usually hoard old magazines – in fact, I rarely even buy magazines. But I still have that October 1995 issue of the </span><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Atlantic</i><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">. </span><br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">
<br style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:'Times New Roman',Times,FreeSerif,serif;font-size:15px;line-height:21px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">Jonathan's article explained a lot of what's wrong with the economy and what's wrong with economics: "Once you start asking 'what' as well as 'how much' -- that is, about quality instead of just quantity -- the premise of the national accounts as an indicator of progress begins to disintegrate, and along with it much of the conventional economic reasoning on which those accounts are based." </span><div>
<font color="#222222" face="Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif" size="1"><span style="line-height:21px"><br></span></font></div><div><font color="#222222" face="Times New Roman, Times, FreeSerif, serif" size="1"><span style="line-height:21px">Read more...<a href="http://econospeak.blogspot.ca/2013/03/income-growth-and-double-counting.html#more">http://econospeak.blogspot.ca/2013/03/income-growth-and-double-counting.html#more</a></span><br clear="all">
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