The statistical agencies themselves have recognized this for many years and have made, and continue to make, improvements they deem desirable and for which they have the resources. The agencies themselves, however, are severely limited in both what they can do and what they dare to propose, given severe financial, human resource, and capital constraints. The problem is more the rapid change in the economy than problems in the statistical system per se. The American economy has produced more services than goods for more than fifty years, and the percentage continues to grow. The growth of services primarily reflects the shift in demand as people become richer, live longer and as technology enables us to provide those services, such as greatly improved medical care.
Many services are more difficult to measure than traditional goods.
Perhaps the most difficult problems revolve around health care, where we tend to count procedures or measure outlays, rather than define specific outcomes and measure and price these accordingly. When arthroscopic surgery replaces invasive surgery, or medication replaces the need for surgery, it greatly improves the quality and lowers the real price of repairing a knee or ulcer but is beyond the scope of the current statistical system to measure in a timely and accurate fashion. It is not just the generic growth of services, but, as discussed above, the rapid introduction of new products. But many important new products are introduced not only every year but every month. To take a few examples in the last few decades, cellular telephone service has freed up some segments of the population from spatial confines, so that, for example, working mothers can keep in touch with an aged parent or a sick child as they commute to work.