Economic Evolution
Invisible Hand - the possibility for people to cooperate without coercion
This occurs because of tacit knowledge, or dispersed knowledge. Each person has the know-how for one step of the process that no one else involved in said progression understands or would understand even if it were articulated to them. And in true social science fashion, individuals react and act on this knowledge differently.
The Invisible Hand idea is much more reliable than central planning because it causes shortages to happen since it eliminates incentive structures. Coupled with this issue is the glaring problem that central planners don't have time to react to changes.
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Market economics - people who are buying and selling have incentives to know what people want; benefits from good decisions & fails from bad ones
Price systems: the perfect indicator of scarcity because no one (seller or consumer) sets prices.
Because of our knowledge of how price systems work, it's possible to measure GDP, which is the value of everything produced. BUT not everything of value is produced, and not everything that's produced is of value. GDP also tells us that America produces over fifty times more than the poorest countries of the world. This is evidence of a staggering inequality.
HOWEVER, it's ridiculous to ask the question of whether or not we're better off than we were ten years ago. Expecting something like that to change is utterly astounding, but it causes a frenzy when the answer isn't 'yes'.
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