Two fine examples of this myopia are the basket of items that economists and government statisticians use to calculate inflation rates, and the nature of the jo

Two fine examples of this myopia are the basket of items that economists and government statisticians use to calculate inflation rates, and the nature of the jobs that are considered to measure labor force participation. Or perhaps more strictly, the metrics that those groups put out that the media choose to report on. CPI isnt always the best metric and something like healthcare costs are better tracked in the PCE metric. So you get this situation where CPI says "not bad, boys" and the consumers have a wildly different point of view. For labor participation, full employment is not great if everyone is working crappy jobs. I dont know if there are better metrics buried in the government's output, but it perhaps would be more in keeping with lived experience to track participation with dependence on supplemental sources of income. if you need a second job, or charity/government help, just to survive, then you dont have a "living job". That sort of thing isnt captured by LFP stats. To be clear, I do trust the govt stats in places like the UK and US. I just think they are measuring the wrong things.