‘On the Measurement of Social Progress and Wellbeing’: A Commentary

In ‘On the Measurement of Social Progress and Wellbeing: Some Further Thoughts’, Fitoussi and Stiglitz take on the role of norm entrepreneurs, aiming at replacing or at least integrating an old approach to a crucial question – the nature and measurement of wellbeing – with a new one. The end result is not certain, but the mere fact of activating such dynamics of norm change, and the debate surrounding it, is praiseworthy. I will quickly point to three critical points in their argument that I think deserve further discussion.