GDP is definitely a proxy, and without knowing more about how income is allocated within a society and what it is spent on, we can’t say we fully understand how changes in GDP affect the health, happiness, personal freedoms that more directly contribute to wellbeing.
That said, I think the empirical evidence suggests strongly that, perhaps outside of a few edge cases (such as resource booms in, e.g., Botswana or Gulf states), GDP per capita strongly correlates with most other metrics one might care about. I recommend this section of H&H’s growth post.
Another example is the strong correlation between GDP per capita and the Social Progres Index, an Index designed specifically to exclude GDP per capita.
GDP is definitely a proxy, and without knowing more about how income is allocated within a society and what it is spent on, we can’t say we fully understand how changes in GDP affect the health, happiness, personal freedoms that more directly contribute to wellbeing.
That said, I think the empirical evidence suggests strongly that, perhaps outside of a few edge cases (such as resource booms in, e.g., Botswana or Gulf states), GDP per capita strongly correlates with most other metrics one might care about. I recommend this section of H&H’s growth post.
Another example is the strong correlation between GDP per capita and the Social Progres Index, an Index designed specifically to exclude GDP per capita.