The limitations of using GDP as the primary measure of a society’s progress have been well documented. The figure does not differentiate between goods and services that are beneficial and those that are not. For example, producing more cigarettes (and thus more disease), and producing more gasoline for cars stuck on the expressway (and thus speeding destructive climate change), both lead to an uptick in GDP; on the contrary, the work of the stay-at-home parent who provides care for his or her child every day is treated by the GDP as zero.

The fundamental issue: do indicator systems work by attempting to “insulate” them from politics, or by attempting to have them do battle in the political arena by challenging those who don’t accept the importance of the indicators and by promulgating specific policy recommendations? If the answer were engagement, what steps would make a key national indicator system effective?