"These examples confuse effort with result, one of the most common mistakes of this kind is designing systems around the wrong goal. Maybe the worst mistake this kind has been the adoption of the GNP as the measure of national economic success. [...] If you define the goal of a society as GNP, that society will do its best to produce GNP. It will not produce welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency unless you define a goal and regularly measure and report the state of welfare, equity, justice, or efficiency."
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Sources
Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems: A Primer, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2008, page 139-140 (ISBN 9781603580557).
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Welfare
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Welfare
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