content: National measures like GDP do not account for Human Capital.  “Human capital is dominant, but it is not found in the national accounts in a separate category. In the national accounts, they talk about investment as in new plants, equipment, changes in inventory levels. They talk about consumer durables; cars, household appliances, but not human capital. So the national accounts do not have a separate account for spending on human capital. Typically, it is only treated as consumption, even though it's an investment. And it isn't consumption, it's an investment.  The traditional way they've been treating education and health is that they treat them like consumption items. It was economists who kind of revolutionized that by thinking of them as investment items. But the national income accounts have never caught up with that revolution.  Even companies don't do that because they have to take appreciation on other forms of capital - they can't write it off all the way. But they can write off all of their labor today. Sometimes they want to find out what they're investing in their workers, and what rate of return they're getting on investment, and some companies do that, and a number of economists not working for companies have tried to do that. But it's more of a puzzle as to why they aren't doing it." A guy asked a question about 40 minutes in about people who are born with social status or connections - people born with certain social connections would have something called social capital, not human capital, because it is not within them, but it is in the social relationship with others.“ Gary Becker - https://youtube.com/watch?v=QajILZ3S2RE