From The LA Times
By Eric Weiner

A quick quiz. What do the following have in common? The war in Iraq. Sales of cigarettes. The recent fires in Southern California. The answer: They all contribute to our nation’s gross domestic product, or GDP, and therefore are all considered “good,” at least in the dismal eyes of economists.

GDP is the sum of all goods and services a nation produces over a given time. GDP measures the size of the pie, not the quality of the ingredients — fresh apples or rotten ones are counted the same. Or, to put it another way, the sale of an assault rifle and the sale of an antibiotic both contribute equally to the national tally (assuming the sales price is the same).

GDP doesn’t register, as Robert Kennedy put it, “the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate.” GDP measures everything, Kennedy concluded, “except that which makes life worthwhile.”

Yet we continue to track this quarterly statistic as if nothing else matters. If GDP is up, we feel good. It means we as a nation are doing better and are, presumably, happier. Low rates of growth or, God forbid, a shrinking economy mean we are less well off and, presumably, less happy.

However, recent research into happiness — or subjective well-being, as social scientists call it — reveals that beyond the surprisingly low level of about $15,000 a year, the link between economic growth and happiness evaporates.

Read more GDP