Amazing work! With only lay understanding of this subject, I am wondering: Do you think the low contribution of GDP in some way might compel us to place less weight on economic growth? I get a bit confused when thinking about this because freedom might in part derive from the freedom to not have to worry about how to pay for necessities, and shelter and clean water requires substantial tax revenue to be delivered reliably and at scale.
Thank you! To the first part of your comment, I certainly hope so—Nobel-winning economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz edited an international report (supported by dozens more famous researchers) all the way back in 2012 saying that GDP was fundamentally deficient, if not broken, as a national guide. Many European countries have started collecting national satisfaction data as part of a way to fix this problem, but I don’t know how much it’s paid attention to, and I know the US doesn’t even collect this data to begin with.
I think the larger point you’re making is that there might be dependencies between the discovered variables, with which I absolutely agree. In the same way I think it’s dangerous to guess what the right variables are, I think it’s dangerous to guess at exactly what the dependencies are, but I do think it’s critical to understand these relations better. Still, we certainly can’t do that if we don’t even get the variables right, so I believe this is at least a first step in an important direction.
Amazing work! With only lay understanding of this subject, I am wondering: Do you think the low contribution of GDP in some way might compel us to place less weight on economic growth? I get a bit confused when thinking about this because freedom might in part derive from the freedom to not have to worry about how to pay for necessities, and shelter and clean water requires substantial tax revenue to be delivered reliably and at scale.
Thank you! To the first part of your comment, I certainly hope so—Nobel-winning economists Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz edited an international report (supported by dozens more famous researchers) all the way back in 2012 saying that GDP was fundamentally deficient, if not broken, as a national guide. Many European countries have started collecting national satisfaction data as part of a way to fix this problem, but I don’t know how much it’s paid attention to, and I know the US doesn’t even collect this data to begin with.
I think the larger point you’re making is that there might be dependencies between the discovered variables, with which I absolutely agree. In the same way I think it’s dangerous to guess what the right variables are, I think it’s dangerous to guess at exactly what the dependencies are, but I do think it’s critical to understand these relations better. Still, we certainly can’t do that if we don’t even get the variables right, so I believe this is at least a first step in an important direction.