Measure the economy by more than GDP, and report quality of life and the loss of nature with equal weight
Steps to make it happen
- Each country gives an independent statistics agency the job of making a report card on how people live.
- The agency decides what goes into the report by listening to residents of many backgrounds and ages.
- The report lists things like the income of a middle household, health, free time, and how fast forests and fish are disappearing.
- On the day the government announces how much the economy grew, it announces the report card at the same size.
- When the government decides how to spend big money, it shows which numbers on the report card will get better or worse.
- Countries also build a shared set of items so they can compare themselves with one another.
- It becomes normal to talk about the economy by asking how life and nature changed, not just whether money grew.
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The proposal in detail
This proposal does not get rid of gross domestic product, the total value of goods and services made inside a country in a given period. Its principle is to set a group of indicators that are published alongside it and treated the same way. It applies to national governments and to regional governments above a certain size. The indicators rest on three main pillars. The first is the substance of daily life: the income of the middle household rather than the average, the gap in income and wealth, the number of years people live in good health, the time people can use freely, and the time spent on unpaid care and housework at home. The second is the stock of nature, showing how much resources such as forests, soil, water, and fish have grown or shrunk. The third is the burden passed to the future, such as public debt and the amount of roads and water pipes that grow old without being repaired. An independent statistics agency, separate from the government, chooses and calculates the indicators, and it holds forums to hear citizens' opinions while choosing them. The indicators are split into a shared core that can be compared around the world and extra items that each region adds on its own. As a rule, whenever a quick estimate of GDP is released, the full list is released at the same time and with the same prominence, and the government explains which indicators its major budgets and large policies are expected to affect, and how. Countries that lack the ability to produce good statistics may add items step by step while receiving international support.
BenefitsHidden losses and imbalances reach the table where decisions are made
The greatest benefit is that losses and imbalances that used to hide behind the numbers are brought squarely into the place where policy is decided. For example, if on the very day growth is announced, it is shown right beside it that the income of the middle household is flat and the fish in the rivers keep declining, a debate about what lies inside that growth arises naturally. When the government makes a big budget, it has to explain not only the effect on production but also the effect on health, time, and nature, which makes it harder to choose to cut into the future just to make short-term numbers look good. Counting the time spent on unpaid care and housework also makes it easier to recognize that this work is the foundation of society. When citizens take part in choosing the indicators, it also gives them a chance to talk about what their society values. With shared items around the world, there is also a way to check whether one country's wealth is built on cutting into another country's nature or labor. Debates about particular fields, such as ways of working, industry, and finance, can also be held on top of a shared yardstick.
DrawbacksThe more yardsticks there are, the blurrier responsibility becomes
The strongest point made by those who oppose this is that the more indicators there are, the more a government can stress only the numbers that suit it, which weakens the power to hold it to account for results. With a single number, good and bad are clear, but when dozens of items are lined up, some of them are always improving, so the list can become an excuse for hiding failure. Also, growth in production is one of the surest ways for people in poor countries to escape poverty. If rich countries spread a yardstick that stresses quality of life and nature as a worldwide principle, the worry that it could be used as an argument for holding back development in countries that still lack roads and electricity should not be taken lightly. Furthermore, there is no right answer for how to count satisfaction or the value of nature, and the conclusion can change a great deal depending on the method of calculation. The cost and staff needed to build good statistics are not small either, and in countries with limited budgets this could squeeze out other necessary work. Even if citizens take part in choosing the items, there is a risk that the wishes of loud groups will be reflected too strongly.
Learn the background
Gross domestic product was developed in times of war and recession as a yardstick for quickly grasping how much a country was able to produce. It is an excellent tool for measuring the amount of production, but today it is treated almost as if it were the number that shows a country's success itself, and it sits at the center of political judgment and news coverage. Yet this number has big blind spots. The cost of rebuilding homes destroyed in a disaster counts as a plus, but the lost way of life does not count as a minus. If a forest is cut down and sold, the number goes up, but the loss of the forest is not subtracted. Unpaid work such as raising children and caring for the old at home is not counted, even though it holds society up. And even when the average number rises, only some people may get richer while the lives of many stay the same. As climate change, the loss of resources, and widening inequality become common problems for the whole world, chasing a single number makes it harder to see the bills we pass on to the future. Some countries and international bodies have begun trying to measure the richness of life from many sides, but most of these remain reference material and have not reached the point of shaping real policy decisions.
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This proposal was written in Japanese by AI (claude-opus-5-5, policy version 2026-10-15d) and translated by AI (claude-sonnet-5-5). Nobody has checked the facts. Read the original (日本語) How the AI writes