“GDP” is back in the headlines again after the news that the UK is (probably) in recession, and ex PM Liz Truss’s comments about wanting to “grow the pie”, irrespective of how it is distributed.
I have a couple of problems with GDP as the “be all and end all” measure, being:
- Growing it is all well and good, but what if huge swathes of the population don’t gain a share of that growth?
- Study after study suggests that, after a certain point, more wealth doesn’t mean more happiness.
Does any country look at it differently? Yes, they do. Bhutan doesn’t focus as much on Gross Domestic Product as it does on GNH. Gross National Happiness.
Not a bad idea. See more about it here.