Excellent piece. Two points in defence of GDP 1) it's not actually a bad measure of stuff that matters. (As Chris says, Jobs x Wages is a major part of GDP. Jobs matter and wages matter.) 2) Although GDP misses LOTS of other important things, it's far from clear how those omissions actually lead to worse policy. RFK noted that GDP doesn't capture the beauty of our poetry. True. But reforming GDP will not improve the poetry either.