The problem I have with economists is that they pour their effort into what is trackable after waving away the softer stuff. What does it rhyme with? - Compan

The problem I have with economists is that they pour their effort into what is trackable after waving away the softer stuff. What does it rhyme with? - Companies that pour their effort into fine tuning their websites and adverts based off of what their analytics tells them. Years later their product dies and nobody really says why. [Narrator: All the best designers and developers left as the product and company slowly turned soulless.] - City planners that make deals with builders for suburban housing which increases the tax base. Decades later they're stuck dealing with the outsized infrastructure maintenance costs for things like sewer lines without the proper density to afford them. - Prisons, schools, and hospitals get mandates from the state to include a fruit with every breakfast. Individually packaged jam fits the poorly written bill, so that's what we all get. And on and on. The point is, there are things we need to do and problems we need to address that are frustratingly hard to define and agree upon, but the answer is not to wave them away. The answer is the opposite. To head right into them and try to really make a difference without getting lazy. I could, easily, in an afternoon mention dozens of quantifiable proxies for different aspects of a good life. I'm very sure that countries with the technical prowess of Apple and Tesla are capable of achieving better instruments of our collective wellbeing. What we need are economists with courage and resolve. There is obviously something horrible going on across the world right now even if GDP keeps growing.