Thanks for pointing that out! GDP figures are easy to collect and analyze which is why economists like them so much, but you’re absolutely right that they don’t show the entire picture.
For wealth inequality, the Gini Coefficient is a common measure. In the linked wiki article you can see Canada is in line with the UK and Germany for being middle of the road whereas places like US, Russia, and Saudia Arabia have incredibly high income inequality.
The OECD Wellbeing Framework uses both the GINI and a measure of health disparities (differential in life expectancy) as measures of equity.
There is a significant consensus that if a country were to look at a single measure alone, trends and changes in life satisfaction would be the best one. For comparisons between countries, it’s less helpful though.
Thanks for pointing that out! GDP figures are easy to collect and analyze which is why economists like them so much, but you’re absolutely right that they don’t show the entire picture.
For wealth inequality, the Gini Coefficient is a common measure. In the linked wiki article you can see Canada is in line with the UK and Germany for being middle of the road whereas places like US, Russia, and Saudia Arabia have incredibly high income inequality.
The OECD Wellbeing Framework uses both the GINI and a measure of health disparities (differential in life expectancy) as measures of equity.
There is a significant consensus that if a country were to look at a single measure alone, trends and changes in life satisfaction would be the best one. For comparisons between countries, it’s less helpful though.