Traditionally, the economy has been measured by looking at the gross domestic product (GDP) or the stock market. Employment rates and household income are also used to measure how the average worker is doing.

However, even the creator of the GDP admits that it doesn’t really reflect the full story. And, as economic inequality rises and the fruits of society’s labors accrue to fewer individuals, it’s become obvious that we need to expand our definition of economic prosperity past a single number. The bottom 80% of Americans only own 8% of stocks and rising GDP has virtually no relationship with each citizen's wellbeing.

When you measure something, you implicitly set your policy goals. By focusing our measurement on GDP, we’ve promoted production over all else. It’s time to start measuring economic prosperity using a wider index that measures human as well as monetary indicators, such as (but not limited to):

Quality of life and health-adjusted life expectancy Happiness/Well-Being and Mental Health Environmental quality Affordability Childhood success rates Underemployment Income Inequality Consumer and Student Debt Work and civic engagement levels Volunteerism Infant mortality Quality of infrastructure Access to education Marriage and divorce rates Substance abuse and related deaths National optimism Personal dynamism/economic mobility



In short, why use GDP as a proxy for how Americans are doing when we can easily measure that well-being directly? Let's start an American Scorecard, directly measuring the things we should be focusing on.