Also GDP is a terrible proxy for economic prosperity. A broken window adds to GDP, but subtracts from prosperity. If we had a better proxy for prosperity, it would be easier to see if government debt was actually net negative or net positive effect. As is, all arguments one way or the other are speculation and ideology.
A forest cleared creates wealth & prosperity, but what was the value of the forest that was lost? What value do we put on natural amenity, biodiversity, a pristine environment?
An employee works very long hours, numbers go up. Great. In specific situations though we can ask: was any wealth actually created, or was the wellbeing of the employee and their children simply exchanged for dollars?
etc. It's value judgements all the way down.
You can have a high salary in country A, but live in a small studio, eat shit-food and have to take a crappy metro for work.
Or you can take a much lower salary, live in a nice 2-Br apartment, eat at nice restaurants and take a new nice metro for work, and still be able to afford a car.
You’d need $120k/year to afford 1 in New York, and $30k/year to afford 2 in Kuala Lumpur.
There are pther manofestations of thos, and it is not always done by governments.
One of the few true reflections of economic health is commodities - those cannot be fakes.
See, for example https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/gdp-frog-matchbox-dav...