GDP is the wrong tool for measuring what matters

Joseph Stiglitz explains why the model doesn't work. For the last century, gross domestic product (GDP) has been used as the core identifier for a country's prosperity. But striving to grow this measure misses out on some crucial aspects of ensuring the well-being of a nation. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz studies examples that show a detachment between GDP and societal well-being, illustrating how it fails to be a good measure of economic performance. Here, he argues that it is time to replace GDP with accurate metrics of well-being that include environment, inequality and sustainability of an economy. “Such a conversation would almost certainly show that most of us who live in highly developed economies care about our material well-being, our health, the environment around us and our relations with others. We want to do well today but also in the future. We care about how the fruits of our economy are shared: we do not want a society in which a few at the top grab everything for themselves and the rest live in poverty."