Why Inclusive Wealth Index is a better measure of societal progress than GDP?

Measuring wealth which includes natural, physical and human assets

You don’t need to be an economic wizard or finance guru to know the definition of GDP. Even if you never took the ECON 101 class or have absolutely no inclination the financial side of the things here is the definition — GDP stands for Gross Domestic Product & it is the traditional measure used to measure financial well-being of a country and its citizens.

It is the sum of the output, income & expenditure in an economy on which fiscal & monetary policies are eventually based. An increase in GDP is considered as a healthy sign & the governments’ policies are devised to increase the efficiency of produced goods in the country which eventually accounts for an increase in the size of the economy. But there are a couple of problems with measuring economic growth this way to which I will come to a little later.

First, GDP is a measure of income, not wealth since it calculates the values of a country’s goods & services rather than taking stock of natural, physical and human assets. If the…