Let them eat GDP

The Economist points out that GDP per person is a better way of measuring a nation's economic well-being than simple GDP. Rightly so. Indonesia's GDP is almost three times that of Sweden, but where would you rather live? GDP by itself matters for military power and world political clout, but not much else.

But is GDP per person the best measurement? The Economist's article points out that Japan's GDP per person has grown 2.1% in the past year, compared to 1.9% for America. But in Japan, inequality has been rising fast - much much faster even than in the U.S. There, like here, median income has stalled or fallen - but there, it's been falling for almost two decades straight. In China, where GDP per head has grown by an annual 10.8% this decade, hundreds of millions of farmers are poorer than they were in 2000.

If you really want to measure economic well-being, look at how the median person is doing. On that score, many countries' growth over the last 7 years hasn't been growth at all.