RESPOND TO THESE COMMENTS BY EXPRESSING OPINION AND SUGGESTION

1)The statements that Robert F Kennedy makes are true and timeless. While GDP is a helpful summation of a country's general economic status, it does not consider many factors in what makes an economy prosperous. It does not include environmental status, social status of citizens, or the distribution of wealth. As Kennedy says, the GDP does not take into account the negative effects of our production: greenhouse gas emissions, pollution in our water sources, and our general lack of care for the environment. The GDP does not consider each citizen's attitude towards the country because it is only a number gleaned from a summation of other numbers. Finally, it does not account for the abhorrent distribution of wealth within countries, including the United States. The top 1% of wealth owners display a serious monopoly on currency.

There are many new indicators constantly being perfected within the world of economics that can aide one in finding the true economic prosperity within a country. A few indicators that are important to consider (additionally to the GDP, as it is still an cardinal number) are GNP per capita, the Human Development Index, literacy rate, life expectancy, and environmental stress. It would be extremely helpful to have a resource that carefully took these factors into account to provide an accurate summation of a region.

It is important for anyone to understand that a complete understanding of a country's development cannot come from a singular statistic. Many factors must be combined to gain an accurate insight.

2)The statements made by Robert F Kennedy are true and accurate. Although, the GDP is a good resource for tracking unemployment and inflation. There are two significant issues with using the GDP as a measure of economic well-being: the GDP does not include in its data the other elements that compose an economic well-being aspect, such as a healthy environment, safety, and education. Also, it does not show the wealth distribution within the country. It focuses more on the price tag of products and services than on other social aspects. To come up with a better measurement statistic, we should consider all the elements that compose society, the HDI, wealth distribution, unemployment, and environmental impact. Ideally, more than one measurement statics is necessary for more precise information about economic well-being.

3)I find the statements made by John F. Kennedy to be rather accurate and timeless. The facts he brings out in his speech depict how GDP can be a crude device to measure well-being. It "measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile." It is correct that the American economy can be ranked among the top countries in the world. But this does not correlate with the fact that a strong GDP measurement depicts the population's well-being. This discussion should be mated with, what can be said to be a highly politicized topic, healthcare. Left parties claim that the American healthcare system is failing and needs restructuring, while the Right debates the American healthcare system to be the best in the world. As Joshua Cohen writes in a Forbes article about GDP and measuring well-being, both these arguments are brought out with nothing more than just verbal statements to support them. It is correct that America spends millions and billions on healthcare; whether it is for research, technology, or even healthcare education. But this does not reflect an improvement in the actual healthcare that the regular citizens live by; it does not import any factor related to actual well-being into the measure of GDP. In order for the expenses done in healthcare to actually reflect in the GDP, things such as minimizing child mortality and minimizing the effects of chronic diseases should be put into action. One of the most recent examples could be the effects of the tragic Covid-19 virus. America had the highest number of deaths from this virus, which proves very clearly how a strong GDP in a country does not necessarily mean its well-being is as strong as it should be.