Every development economist has said unequivocally that GDP growth alone is not a reliable measure of economic well-being. Usually this was thought to apply on

Every development economist has said unequivocally that GDP growth alone is not a reliable measure of economic well-being. Usually this was thought to apply only to poor countries, where inequality was very high as the industrial sectors (where GDP growth mostly came from) were heavily concentrated in a few hands. It wasn't as much the case in rich countries where labour was better organized and had a stronger bargaining position when negotiating pay, so GDP growth did feed through to higher wages. That seems to have stopped in the rich world since the late 2000s. FTSE 100 company profits are up, yet they're pulling out every trick in the book to keep wages at poverty levels.