It's the yardstick, stupid?

The internet and specifically the demassification and digitization of the economy have resulted in some massive measurement problems for economists.  The truth is that the traditional measures of GDP have never been so disconnected from true well being.  And because we use these measures to report on how well we're doing, their inaccuracy tends to drive our mental assessment of our circumstances.  It's a rather sticky wicket all the way round.  And one without any apolitical solution.  Perhaps the only answer is to stop focusing so much on any one statistic.

Good luck with that.  Much more at Carpe Diem

"Maybe it is not the growth that is deficient. Maybe it is the yardstick that is deficient. MIT professor Erik Brynjolfsson explains the idea using the example of the music industry. "Because you and I stopped buying CDs, the music industry has shrunk, according to revenues and GDP. But we're not listening to less music. There's more music consumed than before." The improved choice and variety and availability of music must be worth something to us—even if it is not easy to put into numbers. "On paper, the way GDP is calculated, the music industry is disappearing, but in reality it's not disappearing. It is disappearing in revenue. It is not disappearing in terms of what you should care about, which is music."