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Does GDP per capita actually compare to median income? Sounds more like it uses mean income which is skewed by extremes (e.g. high earners).


This. An incredibly rich top 0.1% percent could skew GDP per capita a lot, but a happiness index not so much.

Simplifying things to the extreme, take 100 people where half of them earn $1 and are unhappy and half $2 and are happy. Give one person a $150 raise-- you just doubled the GDP but at best increased happiness by 1%.

It is no secret that a small percent of people have been getting very rich [1].

[1]: https://money.cnn.com/2011/02/16/news/economy/middle_class/i...




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