Comprehensive GDP

Anonymous1987

Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for a more accurate measure of GDP and is encouraging accounting for well-being and the sustainability of a country’s economy and natural resources. See article here. Is this just cooking the books given the that a lot of these factors are qualitative and therefore very difficult to measure with any accuracy. Wouldn't these measures be better as supplementary accounts to traditional GDP?

Économiste Monétaire

They want to incorporate "personal insecurity"? Maybe that's a pot-shot at America's obsession with shrinks...

Here's a draft of that group's results:
http://www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr/documents/draft_summary.pdf

I'll try to read it tomorrow and post some thoughts. The current measures are far from perfect, but I can't see subjective well-being supplanting current UN national accounting standards.

Anonymous1987

I didn't read the draft report but this article covers some of the major suggestions. The most interesting points are quoted below:

The commission called for greater use of net national income (taking into account profits exported or imported) and of household income, which would take into account taxes and social benefits and bank interest. It also called for greater prominence of income distribution and less reliance on averages. And it suggested greater use of measures of non-market activities, including leisure.

The above seems like a logical approach to refining GDP although including leisure seems a stretch.

It proposed greater use of objective measures of well-being and more subjective indicators of happiness, covering income and wealth, health, education, social connections and relationships, the environment, insecurity and even political systems.

Happiness or overall well-being is highly subjective and I doubt the ability of any variable to indicate happiness objectively.