29 September 2009
Are the French Happier?
The fault of Brian Domitrovic’s argument in his op-ed article in the September 29, 2009, Wall Street Journal is his reliance on a relatively easily quantifiable gauge like GDP per capita for measuring economic performance. France’s President Sarkozy would surely not question the statement that the U.S. has experienced 50% higher GDP per capital growth than has France over the last 25 years. But he and Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, who led the commission that recommended changing how economic performance is measured, would strongly disagree that government policy should be straitjacketed by adherence to such a narrow definition of human progress.
Redefining economic performance doesn’t move the goal posts during a football game. Rather it enlarges the contest into an Olympics of the common good.
The fault of Brian Domitrovic’s argument in his op-ed article in the September 29, 2009, Wall Street Journal is his reliance on a relatively easily quantifiable gauge like GDP per capita for measuring economic performance. France’s President Sarkozy would surely not question the statement that the U.S. has experienced 50% higher GDP per capital growth than has France over the last 25 years. But he and Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, who led the commission that recommended changing how economic performance is measured, would strongly disagree that government policy should be straitjacketed by adherence to such a narrow definition of human progress.
Redefining economic performance doesn’t move the goal posts during a football game. Rather it enlarges the contest into an Olympics of the common good.
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