Is GDP per capita meaningless?

Austerity

Is it meaningless to measure a country's economic performance with GDP number? Take for instance Ireland, it's GDP per capita is very high BUT when you have lived in Ireland like i did for a few years you realize that even though I am from a country with a GDP per capita that is probably €5-10K lower everything is much better in this country.

Ireland has a very high GDP per capita yet the road network is ****.
The housing standards are ****
"Broadband" in Ireland should be called snailband.

So are GDP numbers totally meaningless if you want to measure any sort of economic performance?

Time Magazine

No, it is not meaningless. It accounts for something of the order of 80% of the cross-country differences in "standards of living", in scare-quotes because you can never really measure that. Nonetheless, everyone accepts it does a decent job at explaining those differences.

With GDP, you can then apply PPP to account for price differences. This is the usual method of looking at standard of living. GDP is also a very large component of the Human Development Index.

Two Nobel Prize winners were recently asked by France to chair a commission on the use of GDP. Their conclusions are here.

Ostrom

Cant resist;

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/nic_marks_the_happy_planet_index.html

Not very soild, but amusing

graw

GDP as measure is definitely not meaningless. You do need to recognise its limitations, that is for sure. Anyway, for the case of Ireland, GNP is generally perceived to be a more useful measure than GDP. Of course, this is something not set in stone. Just thought I'd mention that.