Abstract
Maximising output creates psychological stress as a negative externality. Focusing on bellweather indicators of economic performance while disregarding its effect on work-life balance, on income distribution, on insecurity, or the quality of life creates stress-ors that harm the human biological system. Stress in the US has been generated by debilitating poverty, financial insecurity, the highest level of inequality among rich countries, meager social safety nets that might have mitigated the turbulence of adjusting to the new knowledge economy, and the downward social mobility of millions disadvantaged by globalisation.