Letter from the Editor

摘要

As we enter a presidential election year, it becomes even more obvious that the nation is not well informed about how it is doing economically or socially. Indicators proliferate around the world, but in the United States we focus on the unemployment rate and the gross domestic product. These are not good enough. This issue is dedicated to measuring the nation's well-being. What, in fact, do we mean by well-being? As an economics journal, Challenge leans toward the material facts, but even so the simple measures on which economists usually rely are not adequate.