Optimist Economy
Optimist Economy
Kathryn Anne Edwards and Robin Rauzi
GDP Was Never Going to Make You Happy
53 minutes Posted Aug 19, 2025 at 10:10 am.
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Gross Domestic Product is the big dog of economic numbers. But this measure of the economy’s size has massive blind spots. It ignores income inequality and citizens’ wellbeing. It rewards consumption and thus environmental degradation. Yes, it is vital to know if your economy is growing or shrinking and why. And yet maybe GDP shouldn’t be the lodestar. In fact, as economist Kathryn Edwards relays, the person who invented GDP warned us of its limitations.