Productive national policy formation must be based on relevant real world statistics. Simple dollar statistics measuring the size and growth rate of the commercial economy are of little use in representing the health of a nation or the direction in which it should go.
Measuring in consumption units does not reflect future potential any more than looking in the rearview mirror can provide a reliable vision of the road ahead.
A nation consists of the people and the land and the institutions which give structure to the society. The physical well-being of both the land and the people can be represented only by physical metrics rather than by printed fiat currency flows.
As important as the integrity of the physical measurements, is the time horizon used for planning. The health of the nation depends on the decisions made generations ago. Assets per capita, debt of all kinds and the productivity of the population are all critical societal determinates but it takes decades for policy decisions to affect change.
We must begin to measure in units that reflect the goals we are striving to achieve and make the goals attainable and sustainable.