Laura,

As the text states, the GDP is not a good measure of economic well-being. It excludes non-market goods and services, puts no value on leisure and in other ways fails to measure many activities of value. Why, then, do we use it as our principal measure of aggregate economic activity or economic progress? Would it not be wiser to develop a more comprehensive measure? Are there alternative measures that are equivalent or better? What other measures of economic well-being do you think economists should pay attention to?