[wwweston]

Every elected official has to care about economic outcomes. Because the electorate cares. Hell, some political scientists think that this is the most prominent issue people vote on. And that's assuming elected officials actually don't care about their responsibilities to their constituents, which may well be true for some, but it's wrong to assume as a blanket motivation (and I'd go farther: it actively aids corruption to cast all politicians in the same mold, because to do so is to lazily shrug off the responsibility of making case-by-case judgments, which is itself what enables uncaring leadership to operate without pushback).

The only thing that might matter more broadly than prosperity/poverty is life and health.