A powerful example of ideological lock-in is the standard of gross domestic product (GDP), by which the performance of governments and countries is judged across the world. The economist who invented it in the 1930s, Simon Kuznets, warned that it was a “potentially dangerous oversimplification that could be misleading” and subject to “resulting abuse.” However, in the aftermath of World War II, as the world was gearing up for the Great Acceleration, GDP was formally incorporated into official policy making.69
