“Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement For Well-Being” By Joseph E. Stiglitz, Jean-Paul Fitoussi, and Martine Durand

• “The commission recommended that there should be a relatively small number of indicators, which some of them reflecting how well ordinary citizens were doing (for example, measures of household median income may be a better indicator of economic well-being of the ‘typical’ person than average income, which can be pulled up by a few people having enormously high incomes) and other indicators measuring sustainability.”
• “When we want to assess changes in real output, we want to take out the effect of inflation.”
• “what maters is not just size of the pie, but how it is divided, the st of ingredients used when preparing it, and whether these ingredients will continue to be available in the future”
• “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”
• “The SDGs rely on a variety of other indicators, e.g., focusing on the share of income going to the bottom 40%.”
• “For instance, indicators of the income of the very rich could be derived from administrative tax returns, and a better picture of the entire income distribution could be achieved by merging numerous administrative data sets (e.g. tax and social security) and survey results.”
• “Similarly, some may suggest that privatizing social security will increase GDP as a result of the increased efficiencies and associated savings by households, while a correct accounting of the value of social security could show that private sector may in fact be less efficient than the government in providing these services even when the private sector generates profits, and that privatization may increase individuals’ economic insecurity.”
• “And for good reason: current GDP measures pay no attention to resource depletion or environmental degradation.”
• “Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  1. No poverty.
  2. No hunger.
  3. Good health and well-being.
  4. Quality education.
  5. Gender equality.
  6. Clean water and sanitation.
  7. Affordable and clean energy.
  8. Decent work and economic growth.
  9. Industry innovation and infrastructure.
  10. Reduced inequalities.
  11. Sustainable Cities and communities.
  12. Responsible consumption and production
  13. Climate action.
  14. Life below water.
  15. Life on land.
  16. Peace, justice, and strong institutions.
  17. Partnership.”
• “By 2030, progressively achieve and sustain income growth of the bottom 40% of the population at a rate higher than the national average”
• “In fact, many observers claim that what matters are not inequalities of outcomes but inequalities of opportunities. In a fair society, everyone should have equal chances to achieve good outcomes regardless of the circumstances of his or her birth.”
• “Equality of opportunity, in this approach, means that individuals exerting the same level of effort should have the same outcomes (or the same probability distribution of outcomes) regardless of their circumstances.”
• Economic Insecurity: “(1) the probability of an adverse event (a shock); (2) the negative consequences from this shock (the loss); and (3) the kinds of protection to prevent or cover these losses (the buffers).”
• “Even today, transaction costs for annuities are large and, whether because of this or of information asymmetries or other market failures, buying a long-term bond is often more advantageous than buying an annuity.”
• “These benefits are, of course, greater than just the value of the increased individual security. If more secure individuals are more productive and/or are able to pursue higher-risk activities because of the presence of good social insurance, then society is better off, with some of the benefits of the increased productivity captured for the public benefit through taxation.”