Economists care about GDP.

Is there a correlation with GDP and anything good for the middle or lower class?

It makes it so goods get cheaper over time as efficiency is found.

What if that efficiency has started trending heavily towards reducing labor costs? What if that efficiency is starting to hit the middle class because artificial intelligence can do what they do, except better?

Are cheaper goods and society being richer as a whole worth anything else?

It makes the rich richer. I don’t see that as a valuable thing for anyone except the rich.

It also makes the US have access to its greatest weapon. Its monstrous economic influence. The US can destroy whole countries without a single military action.

When you combine the monster economy with 5% being spent on the military, you see the true influence.

Is that influence worth focusing all our efforts on increasing the GDP?