This all just points to the importance of choosing a good metric. The article’s example of GDP as a metric was just an example – later in the article, the autho

This all just points to the importance of choosing a good metric. The article’s example of GDP as a metric was just an example – later in the article, the author points out that a few ways in which that metric would need to be patched. I think the proper response to wanting to vote for a sheriff who would cook the books is to increase the penalty for sheriffs who are caught cooking the books, since their actions would incentivise others more than they do now. Hopefully then, even a more crooked sheriff would recognize that it is not in his interest to go to jail just so that the people who voted him in with can make more money. To help those who are on welfare, perhaps the metric needs to additionally include a criterion such as average happiness of everyone, including those on welfare, as rated by a periodic survey.