I think we're in agreement here. I purposely didn't imply that GDP growth was a good indicator of smart social policies, just that GDP shrinkage (especially to

I think we're in agreement here. I purposely didn't imply that GDP growth was a good indicator of smart social policies, just that GDP shrinkage (especially to that extent) was an inarguable indicator of bad social policies. There may also be GDP growth in a country with bad social policies. I wouldn't expect there to be much GDP shrinkage in a country with smart social policies, though.