The trouble with that logic is that there's a huge correlation between happiness ( https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-... ) and GDP per capita.
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GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
31–36 of 36 posts
Re: GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
#32The trouble with that logic is that there's a huge correlation between happiness ( https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/happiest-... ) and GDP per capita.
Personally, I find the idea of statistically measuring the "happiness" of an entire society to be absolute intellectual fraud.
There is even correlation with my happiness by the minute based on some of the dumb things I read on here at times.
Re: GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
#33Apart from
1) measuring activity that doesn't contribute much to society in any meaningful way (war), and from
2) failing to measure activity that actually contributes to society (like the grey economy),
3) GDP also fails to measure old activity that is still contributing. In a company's accounting that would be the assets, incl. the IPR and goodwill. In a country, it's the roads that our forefathers built, the education that our parents still have, the peace that was brokered with neighboring states 500 years etc. I wish there was a better tool for measuring that. Even if the GDP of China has surpassed that of the EU for a few years, it will be many years for China to catch up with the GDP (and other contributions) added to the European economy in the past hundreds of years.
Re: GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, people can be happy out of ignorance, and that ignorance can include things that contribute to high child mortality. I'm not sure we should be ok with high child mortality, just because people are happy.
No one is suggesting that and no one is suggesting that happiness is somehow the result of this.
I'm the comment I'm reply to said "What matters more than happiness?".
The point is, plenty of stuff matters more than just happiness.
Re: GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
#35GDP is useless without a standard calculation for computing the GDP. As it is, each country has its own calculation for GDP, which they tinker with to make it look good. The United States famously did this in the 1980's as it transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a service economy. They also included products and services from abroad if it were an American-owned company creating those products or delivering those services. Another country can count that activity as part of their GDP since it was done within their borders.
It's crazy.
Re: GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters (2020)
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one is suggesting that and no one is suggesting that happiness is somehow the result of this.
I'm the comment I'm reply to said "What matters more than happiness?". The point is, plenty of stuff matters more than just happiness.
I see, thank you for clarifying.