ABSTRACT

What is the significance of GDP per capita to a society? What does it represent conceptually? These questions have been addressed in past decades, engendering extensive explorations of the limitations of the indicator, yet answers have proved problematic or partial. The paper presents the main conclusions so far drawn and builds upon them to present a new reading of the significance of GDP per capita. At the heart of this reading is the view that, while GDP per capita is not indicative of the welfare of individuals, it is indicative of an irreducible ‘group well-being.’ This view, however, requires one to relinquish the belief that only individuals can be ‘well.’ It turns out that the allegedly orthodox view, which sees GDP as a human-centered indicator, requires an unorthodox philosophical standpoint, one that accepts an irreducible group well-being. The paper presents this alternative interpretation and addresses its upsides and limitations.

摘要

人均GDP对一个社会有什么意义？它在概念上代表什么？这些问题在过去几十年得到解决，引发了对该指标局限性的广泛探索，但答案被证明是有问题的或部分的。本文介绍了迄今为止得出的主要结论，并以此为基础对人均 GDP 的重要性提出了新的解读。这种解读的核心观点是，虽然人均 GDP 并不代表个人福利，但它代表了一种不可缩减的“群体福祉”。然而，这种观点要求人们放弃只有个人才能“健康”的信念。事实证明，将GDP视为以人为中心的指标的所谓正统观点需要非正统的哲学立场，一个接受不可减少的群体福祉的人。本文介绍了这种替代解释并解决了它的优点和局限性。