The poor, the rich and the sad

No one can accuse Nicolas Sarkozy of aiming low. The French president wants to make his country the «soul» of the new Renaissance which the world needs. The goal of reconstructing rules and norms sounds distinctly old-fashioned, but Sarkozy’s approach is modern. He wants to put a number on the progress of the nation’s soul. Only the dullest materialist would consider GDP per person, the standard measure of national prosperity, up to the job. GDP includes only actual cash payments for goods and ...