Does GDP Tell The Full Story Of How Well A Country Is Doing?

[viljy]

GDP calculations now include everything. Financial transactions, unproductive spending, etc. This creates nominal growth. But behind this growth, there may be no real product, or, figuratively speaking, no increase in value. So GDP is not enough to assess actual economic growth. And even less so to assess the population’s standard of living.

[Hypnotizer]

Sometimes I think about is how we measure whether a country is doing well economically. A country can report economic growth but that doesn’t necessarily mean that life is easier for the people living in that country. Someone may be working long hours, spend more on basic needs and still struggle to save anything at the end of the month. There are also the works that people do without getting paid even though this kinds of works doesn’t get to appear in headline GDP figures.

GDP isn’t actually the only metric out there for measuring if a country is economically doing well. Other metrics like the HDI, GPI and so on exists but I believe a true economic growth or progress of a country should reflect on the lives of its common citizens and not only be some metrics on paper.

 What’s the point in having “a healthy economic growth” if your citizens don’t have any improvement in their living standards?

I know GDP has it purpose and I’m not saying that economic growth doesn’t matter. I just wonder whether we sometimes focus so much on the numbers that we forget to ask what does numbers actually mean for ordinary people.

If the country’s GDP keeps growing but most people don’t feel any improvement in their daily lives, should we still all that economic progress? Why or why not?

GDP doesn’t gives the full picture of how well a country is generally doing, so it is  likely possible for it to keep increasing and not have any effect on the lives of the common citizen if the government doesn’t take action to improve the lives of their citizens.

Economic growth is fundamentally kinda distinct from economic progress, so if a GDP keeps increasing but most people don’t have any improvement in their lives then it can still be considered “an economic growth” though it is not “an economic progress”.

[Judith87403]

GDP has to do with overall country's production which means that the higher the production, the higher the economic growth because there will be increase in employment and labour force which impacts in the economy. GDP doesn’t tell the full economic growth of a country but it plays a vital role in determining the economic value. There are countries that produces a lot of things and export to other countries which gives value to the country's currency and also stand them out among other countries that has less production level. GDP is a major factor of a country's economic growth but there are other factors to consider before concluding that a country is doing well. A country can still have a high production while employment is low and inflation can still be on the rise.

[hyudien]

To see a country perform well is not entirely dependent on the GDP growth produced by the country, indeed if a country produces good GDP then it can be said that the government in the country managed to grow its economy, but the big question is whether the results of the growth are distributed evenly? this is what needs to be considered. I think to get a complete picture of whether a country is performing well we need to look at other indicators such as income inequality, purchasing power, job quality, access to basic services, and overall quality of life, as some members have mentioned here.

[gracreavix]

A counties GDP will increase and you will not see it in the people at a large scale. That's because it could be that only a few people is actually enjoying the growth of the whole country or the gains are concentrated in one part of the country or group of people. So I think we shouldn't just be measuring GDP alone of a countries progress, other things supposed to be added to it. This GDP is creating like a false news even though it's true. Just that ordinary citizens isn't partaking of this growth that js being broadcasted everywhere.

That means a country can lack purchasing power and still be tagged a country with good GDP. So in essence, I would love if not only the GDP be calculated, but another thing should complement the GDP. Let not only GDP stand alone.

[Filicius]

Perhaps the key is that when we talk about a “Country” in reality, we often refer to an abstract and largely non-existent entity beyond paper, which, as is well known, can withstand everything.

As has already been said, it is not a reliable indicator to diagnose the quality of life of people living in a certain territory, although if the rest of the factors were identical, which only happens in theory, it could be a valid indication, and I think that is why it is so popular, in addition to the fact that it is useful for economists, politicians and journalists, because it serves to simplify a very complex reality.

[hafiztalha]

Indeed, GDP alone cannot tell how well a country is doing; economic growth is equally important but it becomes meaningful when ordinary people start getting benefits from it on a daily basis. If people are struggling with low wages, they have to pay high prices, there is unemployment going on, and the living conditions are not good but the GDP is increasing, then we cannot say that progress is going on.
GDP is not useless, as it has to measure the economic activity and the productivity of a country.

The main issues emerges when GDP is taken as measure of success. We should also look at the employment opportunities,  income of common man, purchasing power,  access to good education and healthcare and also the overall quality of life. If a country is making wealth but that wealth is not creating opportunities for people, then it is of no use. Real progress in economy means making the lives of the people better and also making country richer.

[tiCeR]

Sometimes I think about is how we measure whether a country is doing well economically. A country can report economic growth but that doesn’t necessarily mean that life is easier for the people living in that country. Someone may be working long hours, spend more on basic needs and still struggle to save anything at the end of the month. There are also the works that people do without getting paid even though this kinds of works doesn’t get to appear in headline GDP figures.

I know GDP has it purpose and I’m not saying that economic growth doesn’t matter. I just wonder whether we sometimes focus so much on the numbers that we forget to ask what does numbers actually mean for ordinary people.

If the country’s GDP keeps growing but most people don’t feel any improvement in their daily lives, should we still all that economic progress? Why or why not?

It is the point in time measure that you can get. Unless you conduct a time series comparison, it could be misleading most of the time. Of course you could determine whether you are above or below global average, but what about a country takes itself as the yard stick? Time series is probably the most reliable to get the best ouf of GDP measurements. Or it depends on the context, but relatively straightforward markers like growing or shrinking, it is measured in a countrys own terms.

[DYOR+BTC]

Indeed, GDP alone cannot tell how well a country is doing; economic growth is equally important but it becomes meaningful when ordinary people start getting benefits from it on a daily basis. If people are struggling with low wages, they have to pay high prices, there is unemployment going on, and the living conditions are not good but the GDP is increasing, then we cannot say that progress is going on.
GDP is not useless, as it has to measure the economic activity and the productivity of a country.

The main issues emerges when GDP is taken as measure of success. We should also look at the employment opportunities,  income of common man, purchasing power,  access to good education and healthcare and also the overall quality of life. If a country is making wealth but that wealth is not creating opportunities for people, then it is of no use. Real progress in economy means making the lives of the people better and also making country richer.

You are correct, GDP never determines the progress of a nation but only tells how good the country is in production and exportation of desired commodities to other nations that needs them.
To ascertain the level of success of a nation,  there should be progress in all rectification and not only in GDP which we all knowvis never a ticket to a balancedeconomy.
Some leaders with corrupt mindset presents GDP but neglecting other important areas of the country that deserves uninterrupted attention

[tabas]

That's only useful to the government because in paper, it's got its purposes. And one of it is about borrowing money to either IMF, World Bank or other countries. But knowing about the real economic situation will be defined of how well the majority of its citizens. We don't need to be more technical on this, if we see a lot suffers from having no jobs, having rent problems, and other sorts of problems that we all are experiencing then that growth is nothing but a number that's written on a piece of paper just for the record.

[uneng]

GDP measures countries' economical development in a very generic metric. The data doesn't go into details to analyze the reality of the individuals and the families. There can be a country with very high economical indicative, but what if the production is held by a small group inside the country, while everyone else struggles with poverty? The differences between the richest and the poorest aren't taken into consideration, that is the main issue.

After all, only by experiencing the daily life of the country it's possible to identify how prosperous it is for real, and how good life is for its citizens. Social experiments are good on this matter. Check for foreigners going to third world countries and trying to survive there for one month with a local minimum wage.

[Queentoshi]

If the country’s GDP keeps growing but most people don’t feel any improvement in their daily lives, should we still all that economic progress? Why or why not?

Economic growth is not yet economic progress and sometimes economic growth will first happen before economic progress will follow This is why sometimes a country's GDP may grow and citizens may not immediately feel the effect until after a while because a growing economy does not immediately affect lives it takes a while for its effects to really show.

So, from my own view to really see how well the country is doing, you have to check the lives of the citizens and their standard of living to really understand, not just the GDP alone.

[Ryu_Ar1]

This can be one indicator for now but on the one hand it can also be deceptive.
I don't want to talk about other countries because for my country it is like that where GDP growth always looks good but in reality it is only by data but not by real in real life.

This shows that the GDP is seen from the benchmark depends on the regulation of the government itself in determining their GDP standards so this is just a way to show that a country is growing in a shell but its contents are messy.
I live in Indonesia and the GDP in our country continues to grow over time but does this look good? In terms of the data provided, it is quite good but the reality is that it is just nonsense because the standard of GDP in our country is lowered so that it can be seen that this growth is proof that our quality is rising even though we are only trying to deceive ourselves and it is the people who are harmed here.

[Leahized]

If the country’s GDP keeps growing but most people don’t feel any improvement in their daily lives, should we still all that economic progress? Why or why not?

GDP is the gross domestic production amount, which can be said to be its own capability. The states with higher GDP are self reliant, this is a sign of improvement for the general public and the state. For example: we can emulate China because they work very hard. It is calculated annually and indicates how much progress has been made economically. Specifically, it is not possible to fully identify a state's economic condition in this way. And when the per capita income of the general person increases, maybe some improvement can be felt. However, the growth of GDP does not result in prosperity among the people.

[danieldavidd]

By my little understanding is not every goods that has been recorded
in the country is by the knowledge of the government because the record cannot be taken by the government they will only gives their record based on information and what they has been recorded physically but curates me if am wrong.

[Fortify]

Sometimes I think about is how we measure whether a country is doing well economically. A country can report economic growth but that doesn’t necessarily mean that life is easier for the people living in that country. Someone may be working long hours, spend more on basic needs and still struggle to save anything at the end of the month. There are also the works that people do without getting paid even though this kinds of works doesn’t get to appear in headline GDP figures.

I know GDP has it purpose and I’m not saying that economic growth doesn’t matter. I just wonder whether we sometimes focus so much on the numbers that we forget to ask what does numbers actually mean for ordinary people.

If the country’s GDP keeps growing but most people don’t feel any improvement in their daily lives, should we still all that economic progress? Why or why not?

It definitely does not tell you how things are going in a country, but it's an indicator of how much productivity a country is outputting in comparison to others. Let's take two examples and compare though, America has high salaries but in return people have to use their vastly over expensive healthcare system and are lucky to get 8 days "PTO" off per year. They have a history of being particularly innovative, but working yourself to death with little leisure time doesn't sound that appealing. Then there is Europe which usually has some form of "free" (covered by taxes)  or affordable insurance for healthcare. It has arguably better food standards and quality. It also has much more time off with 20+ days in most countries being quite common with some offering 30+ days per year. It might have slightly lower wages but I think quality of life is much better. None of this is really described by GDP.

[suzanne5223]

GDP is a primary report measure of economic activity of a country, but it cant be used to tell the full story of how well a country is doing for its people because the 1% are always the ones that benefit from the country's GDP. Although we can know or have the privilege to measure the total value of goods and services produced in the country, we cannot know how that value is distributed or whether living standards are actually improving for the majority, which is where the 1% always like to manipulate the system for their own selfish benefit.
This is why some people dont feel the economic progress.

Having said that, GDP growth alone can't be used to judge a country's broad economic progress if purchasing power, housing affordability, healthcare access, and the ability to save do not progress.

[Jubilee58]

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is what is used to measure how well a country is fairing economically, and when it is on the high side that is really a sign that the economy of that very country is really growing. But while looking at the GDP of a country or scoring the economy according to GDP, it is also important to look directly at the citizens of such country if really the good GDP they have have is actually reflecting in the lives of the citizens. In some countries, the leaders could be very serious growing the country's treasury while the citizens suffer, the prioritize embarking on multimillion projects, but don't really focus on the wellfair of the citizens, and if this is the way some leaders wants to grow their economy, it is really a wrong method. Good leadership should focus more on human development, and welfare, but increasing GDP when citizens are groaning is very abnormal.

[Spaceman1000$]

Sometimes I think about is how we measure whether a country is doing well economically. A country can report economic growth but that doesn’t necessarily mean that life is easier for the people living in that country. Someone may be working long hours, spend more on basic needs and still struggle to save anything at the end of the month. There are also the works that people do without getting paid even though this kinds of works doesn’t get to appear in headline GDP figures.

I know GDP has it purpose and I’m not saying that economic growth doesn’t matter. I just wonder whether we sometimes focus so much on the numbers that we forget to ask what does numbers actually mean for ordinary people.

If the country’s GDP keeps growing but most people don’t feel any improvement in their daily lives, should we still all that economic progress? Why or why not?

. The question you asked is a brilliant one and it makes me to remember my economic classes in those days in school, gross domestic product GDP basically helps to calculate the economic growth of the country from production to services made in goods and services within the country, however technically speaking what i usually used to measure economic growth that affect the life of the people is GDP per capita, the GDP per capita helps to measure how much each person earns at the end of the year, hence you take an average of what everybody earns at the end of the year, you can easily deduce that the country has an economic climate that favors the citizens, but with GDP alone you might not literally see the growth of the economy in the lives of the people, it is mostly within the federal level that you will see that growth when national statistics is being measured. 

[Shadiq]

GDP is the total value of the total domestically produced goods and services of a country. GDP is very important for understanding the economic condition of the country. But the standard of living and inflation cannot be understood by GDP. No matter how high the GDP of a country is, if inflation is high and government taxes are high, it is very difficult for that country to save, and even for them to work hard to meet their daily basic needs. For example, you can look at Japan and South Korea.

Another notable point is that it is not possible to understand the economic condition of all countries by looking at the amount of total GDP. Because if the total land area and population of a country are small, it is natural that the GDP of that country will be relatively low. In this case, it is important to consider per capita income.

That is, GDP is not able to provide complete information to get an idea about the economy of a country, rather we need other information.