For nearly just as long as GDP has been a leading metric for economists around the world, it's also seen its fair share of critiques. Going as far back as the 1930s, economist Simon Kuznets argued the formula didn't account for how individuals' welfare and the quality of their work lives.
"No income measurement undertakes to estimate the reverse side of income, that is, the intensity and unpleasantness of effort going into the earning of income," Kuznets wrote, adding that the US's welfare can "scarcely be inferred from a measurement of national income."
This criticism remains relevant, as researchers call for a new standardized metric that accounts for population growth, purchasing power, and other quality-of-life factors.
New measurements like the Genuine Progress Indicator emphasizes the ever-shifting definition of progress, and accounts for elements missing from GDP like environmental sustainability, crime, unpaid work (parenting, housework, etc.), and wealth distribution.
Other issues have plagued GDP since its creation. Its focus on simplicity hides the massive potential for data collection errors or incorrect sampling. Failure to properly account for seasonal adjustments, survey errors, or irregularities can skew the final sum and leave economists with massively incorrect data.
Finally, the speed with which new technologies and businesses develop leave GDP lagging behind more modern metrics. A 2018 Credit Suisse report detailed how GDP doesn't account for relatively new, yet basic, categories like income from shared assets. This omits growing fields like rideshare drivers, room renters, and food delivery couriers.
The formula fails to account for home production of digital goods like videos, articles, or software engineering, snubbing freelancer writers, influencers, and coders-for-hire. It also ignores "digital intermediation," which covers all categories in which consumers bypass typical brokers and agents and use an online equivalent in their place.
These are just a handful of the categories GDP leaves out in its calculation. As new tech-focused products, jobs, and industries hit the market, the world's default economic measurement leaves them in the dark.