A national group of researchers is measuring the quality of life of all Canadians, taking into account factors like living standards, health and civic engagement. The premise is that measuring the overall progress of a society is an important step in moving it forward: what gets measured gets done.
A new phrase has entered the economic lexicon. It is called the "progress gap." Coined by Colin le Duc, a British investment executive, it recognizes a failing that number crunchers can no longer ignore. Income growth, the sine qua non of economics, is an unreliable indicator of how well a society is doing.
[...] the Ice Storm of 1998 is the biggest single event in Canadian history to boost the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a simple totalling of all goods and services in the economy that is the most-used measure of the economy.
