[Zigurd]

It means one cheeseburger OK. Five cheeseburgers not OK. Simple enough?

The objective measure: Your neighbors with a good quality of life eats one cheeseburger. The one who died, five.

Being vegan would be even better but there is no need to be so... principled.

Do you find that "unprincipled?"

[rayiner]

How do you translate that "principle" into a useful definition of GDP? E.g. When can I include revenues from trading options contracts in GDP?

[Zigurd]

Roughly the same way you measure returns against a market index, or currency value against a weighted "basket" of currencies.

But some things should be obvious: The US vastly overpays for health care. The US is also a far outlier in prison spending. Finance probably isn't the biggest offender in soaking up money while failing to deliver quality of life or material output.