The Economy’s Missing Metrics
Kuznets believed that economic statistics should be an essential part of a democracy: that they could hold our leaders accountable, by demonstrating whether the government was making life better or worse. Kuznets argued — as, incidentally, most economists do — that measures like employment and inflation are substitutes for what really matters: our quality of life, as each person defines it for himself. We measure money and other practical things because we don’t know how to measure happiness or fulfillment precisely.
.. Kuznets believed that economic statistics should be an essential part of a democracy: that they could hold our leaders accountable, by demonstrating whether the government was making life better or worse. Kuznets argued — as, incidentally, most economists do — that measures like employment and inflation are substitutes for what really matters: our quality of life, as each person defines it for himself. We measure money and other practical things because we don’t know how to measure happiness or fulfillment precisely.
.. Now, though, we have the potential to build a truly Kuznetsian system. Americans have access to devices that can know where they are at all times, what they’re doing, how fast their hearts are beating, how much sleep they’re getting, how much time they’re spending at work or with family or out on a lake. This sort of data is being collected — with or without our knowledge — by tech companies: Google, Fitbit, Withings and countless more.