In: Economics
What is GDP according to the official definition and what does it count? What is missing in this official definition? Do you think it should count the items that are missing? How would this change countries’ measure of their wealth? What is the difference between GDP and GDP per capita? What does GDP per capita tell us that GDP does not? What are other measures of well-being and what do you think of them? Lastly, which ones do you think are the best measures of an economy and a society?
Official definition: Gross Domestic Product measures the total market value of all final goods and services produced in a specific time period, however it only counts the value added and intermediate goods are not included. GDP does not take into account the allocation of growth and, so, it does not reveal inequality. It also is not a measure of well-being. It should count the items that are missing so as to be more inclusive. The difference between GDP and GDP per capita is that the former does not tell us about standard of life while as latter does.
The other measures of well-being are
These measurements try to define health and quality of life or we can say that they try to measure overall health of an individual, guide us to overcome difficulties and weakness in the above parameters of life. Human development index, happy planet index and Living Planet Index are the best measures of an economy and a society