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 an hour 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 41 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.