Nussbaum measured a good life not by wealth, but by what people are actually able to do

Martha Nussbaum argued that standard measures of welfare like income or GDP miss what actually matters: whether a person is genuinely able to live long, stay healthy, think freely, and take part in political life. Her capabilities approach, developed with economist Amartya Sen, lists core freedoms a just society owes everyone, and has directly shaped how the UN measures human development worldwide.

— Martha Nussbaum, Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach — 2000
Go deeper: get the book →