Traditionally, a country’s economic health and well-being is measured by something called the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or its cousin, the Gross National Product (GNP). The media eagerly reports the number on a monthly basis and its rise or fall is used as an indicator of how well things are progressing or not. A recession, for instance, is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. But it’s really just a measure of national spending with no distinctions between transactions that add to well-being and those that diminish it. As long as money changes hands, the GDP increases.