My definition of the economy is the actual definition lol.

ozlikethewizard 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

GDP per capita is not an effective measure of the economic quality of the average person though. If growth is centralised in the hands of the few, then sure per capita goes up but most peoples access to increased wealth does not.

Look at something like HDI instead, US actually down over the past ~decade:

https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/human-development-index#/in...

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dismalaf 44 minutes ago | parent [-]

The "standard of living" component of HDI is literally GNI per capita PPP (basically the same thing as GDP per capita, with a few minor adjustments).

The other components are just life expectancy and educational attainment.

The educational attainment one is interesting, all the countries at the top have free post-secondary... Does a PhD do more for the nation than an entrepreneur who creates a unicorn and hires 10k engineers?

Also life expectancy is a lagging indicator...

	▲	PorciiVorbesc 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		>Does a PhD do more for the nation than an entrepreneur who creates a unicorn and hires 10k engineers? As someone from an EU country with an oversupply of PhDs say, definitely not.

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PorciiVorbesc 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Whose "actual definition" is that? Which authority established the the "actual definition" is in the name of all of us? At the end of the day, definitions are irrelevant, what matters is majority voter perception. GDP/capita don't matter if majority of voters perceive themselves as poor.

And GDP/capita is a poor metric since it doesn't account for inequality differences of wealth accumulation. Like if your economy has a few ultra wealthy Elon Musks, Jeff Bezos, Larry Elissons, Jenson Huangs and and tens of thousands of broke homeless people, then the average GPD per capita is more than fine.

My and many other peoples' definition, is how many people can find decent paying jobs right now, and how much they can afford after paying rent and bills. They don't care about the stock market, as that's just the playground of the top 10% of asset holders(including HN), not of the majority working class.