Think of the economy as a machine that needs to keep going. It doesn't really care about what keeps it going for as long as it keeps going. In fact, it doesn't

Think of the economy as a machine that needs to keep going. It doesn't really care about what keeps it going for as long as it keeps going. In fact, it doesn't even care about the production of value either. You'll see this in consumption culture, specifically of non-essentials. Consumption for the sake of consumption, fueled by non-stop marketing. Going into a mall and buying lots of useless shit. Or the online version of it. You'll also see it in work culture. It is of absolute vital importance that you have a job, but absolutely nobody cares about whether its adds value. The only requirement is that money changes hands, irrespective of "value" or "well-being". Somebody once said that roughly 50% of our economy is effectively just keeping each other busy. Isn't it highly suspicious how decades of improvements in economic productivity have always converted to "more stuff" but not once have improved work conditions? Say, shorter work days/weeks? That would do a lot for "well-being" but is obviously not the point of our economy. There isn't really a point other than to keep it going. If there's no point, no metric makes sense.