Forget the GDP; some states have found a better way to measure our progress
GDP, or Gross Domestic Product, measures the market value of all goods produced within a country. It was first developed in the heart of the Great Depression, a context of dramatic declines in economic activity and scarce information about what was happening. When the architect of GDP, Simon Kuznets (who later won the Nobel Prize for this work), presented his first report to Congress, he warned against expecting GDP to answer the most important questions for a country: “The welfare of a nation can scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income as defined by the GDP.” Later, he wrote in The New Republic, “goals for ‘more’ growth should specify of what and for what.” To quote Yogi Berra, “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” Kuznets’s concerns were not heeded, and GDP growth increasingly became the primary standard for measuring a society’s economic progress and standard of living. In the wake of the Great Recession, Americans have become cognizant of the fact that GDP bears little connection to their well-being, and many states are working together to implement alternative measures that more accurately reflect the progress of human well-being. New Republic, 2-3-14.