Measuring The Success of The Economy

It seems to me that the way we measure the success of our economy is out of balance with reality. If you listen to any recent stories or reports, it's pretty much always the same and has been for years. The economy is booming or failing based on the stock market, various indexes, the profits or losses being generated by businesses and banks and so on. In effect, we measure the economy based on how well the rich or the wealthy are doing. As I say its been that way for years. There's no other way to say it, the measure is based on the success of the wealthy.

But this may be why so many people scratch their heads and say "wait a minute, I'm not feeling it. The economy isn't working for me." This is why I'm wondering if we really need a different measure. Something the talking heads and pundits could spend more time talking about when they tell us all that the economy is doing well or not.

So lets start measuring some really worthwhile things. Things like how is the middle class really doing? Or how about college students and debt? How are they doing with that and how are they feeling about the interest rates they're paying? If the economy is good (according to traditional measures), why aren't these rates and costs changing? But here's the most important measure of a good or strong economy. How are the poor and the homeless doing? Are they less poor, less homeless? Are the poor and perhaps the underemployed doing better in terms of their wages?  Wages are currently measured but they don't seem to be weighted in a similar way as the wealth being created by the stock market or other investments. Let's measure the minimum wage and entry level wages as a measure of a good and strong economy.

All of this would be a start in changing how we all view the economy and perhaps it would help business leaders and politicians realize that they had to do more to tout a successful economy.