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You are highlighting a fundamental brokenness of he concept of GDP, the fallacy that only market transactions contribute to quality of life.

I would rather work for 10 months in NY and live in Maui for 2months vacation than spend $15000 traveling to Maui five times for a week each, but GDP says the latter is a higher standard of living.




There is not perfect way to measure output. If you can come up with something better please let everyone know. There are thousands of experts who have spent their entire professional lives on these issues. Good luck!


There are plenty of alternatives out there GDP is simply vary generic and became the most well known outside the field of economics. Depending on what your trying to measure other other tools are much more accurate.

Sort of like your doctor wanting to know your blood pressure for somethings and your weight for others. They can both tell say something about your risk of heart attack but blood pressure also indicates other more immediate issues and your weight is vital when prescribing medication.

EX: Subtracting exports and adding imports is useful when tracking quality of life adding exports and subtracting imports is useful when measuring economic strength. However, the difference between exports and imports tends to make up a small fraction of the economy so it's not that important.




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