>I'd be surprised to find an introductory text which
>does not make clear the distinction between GDP and
>well-being, or between GDP and the condition of the
>poor. The use of GDP in political debate as a welfare
>indicator is another matter, but this thread is getting
>ridiculous.
There's no question though that the media report and people in politics talk about big macro indicators like GDP and class-biased indicators like the stock market and even labor costs. I'm surprised at the degree to which wage growth is spun as a threat; formerly an obsession of the bond market, it's now A1 news. In the U.S., poverty and median income and maybe income distribution get one story a year, when the income & poverty reports are released in late September. World figures get their one annual story when the Human Development Report is released. You can hardly turn on a TV news show without seeing a Wall Street analyst holding forth about something.
Doug