This is a really important issue that I’ve never seen addressed well...
We measure numbers that are easy to measure, like GDP or GDP PPP according to some basket, or unemployment rate.
But how much of it is real?
We have a ~18t GDP, but how much is actual productivity vs rent seeking?
We’re at 4% “unemployment”, but how many people have busywork jobs that don’t fundamentally need to be done? How many have crappy jobs / bad bosses / no security/ need a second or third job to make rent?
Without digging deeper, I think the top line numbers are misleading and lead to optimizing the wrong things.
I think the things we care about most are the things we aren’t measuring yet.
We measure numbers that are easy to measure, like GDP or GDP PPP according to some basket, or unemployment rate.
But how much of it is real?
We have a ~18t GDP, but how much is actual productivity vs rent seeking?
We’re at 4% “unemployment”, but how many people have busywork jobs that don’t fundamentally need to be done? How many have crappy jobs / bad bosses / no security/ need a second or third job to make rent?
Without digging deeper, I think the top line numbers are misleading and lead to optimizing the wrong things.
I think the things we care about most are the things we aren’t measuring yet.