Disadvantages of the measures

We usually start measuring what we can measure well, and we lack motivation to try to measure what we cannot measure well. In this way, the measurement makes invisible the elements that are more difficult to measure although they could be much more relevant. This increases the risk of ignoring those other elements and even in some cases, promoting the idea that they do not exist. The death toll (number of deaths) in an accident or in a conflict can make suffering -much more difficult to measure- invisible. For example, surely 10 individuals who die burned alive in an aviation accident, as a whole, suffer much more than 100 individuals who die from concussion. But suffering is difficult to measure and attention goes to the number we can easily get. This could cause the establishment of wrong priorities… Read more