Morton J. Marcus is an economist formerly with the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. His column appears in Indiana newspapers.

          Did you hear that? It sounded like trumpets from the State House. A call, an inspiration for all Hoosiers in recognition of our Per Capita Personal Income (PCPI) growing by three percent in 2016, the fifth best rate in the nation.

          Yes, what a jump we’ve made from 2015 when our PCPI growth rate was 36th in the U.S. We’re flying high. Look at the company we’re keeping. Only Maryland, Utah, Hawaii and California are growing faster in this most popular of all measures of economic well-being.

          What many people forget is that PCPI is a fraction with personal income on the top and population on the bottom. PCPI goes up when income rises and goes down with more people.

                    But never mind. Never mind that if we didn’t have any population growth, our PCPI would have been the fastest growing of any state in the union. And if we only had some population decline, we could have shot the roof off PCPI growth.

          Yes, it’s true, even if our leading leaders don’t understand it, population growth is bad for PCPI.

          Now how can population growth be bad for something as sacred as PCPI? Doesn’t personal income rise when we have more people? The answer: it depends.

          If Mom comes home with new-born triplets and quits work at the Dollar General to tend to the pups, family income will decline and now be shared by five instead of two. Unless children cause adults to work more, harder and smarter, PCPI will fall.

          If more foreign students, from exotic places like Ohio, attend college in our state, and don’t have high-paying jobs, then PCPI will fall. If retired people choose our town for its festivals and sunsets, they will do little for personal income, unless they are wealthy and don’t do much traveling. Pensions and withdrawals from savings are not counted in personal income.

          However, if the new folks in town have well-above-average paying jobs, PCPI can rise. Statistically, there is no correlation between population growth and PCPI, and only a slight suggestion of that growth in personal income is related to population growth.

          If a community is wedded to the dogma of PCPI, its best policy is to encourage children to move elsewhere until they earn enough to make a significant increase in personal income. How many times have you heard a governor, mayor or economic developer encourage children to leave the parental basement?

          The elite of the political class and the drones of the economic development community have sold themselves on increasing PCPI and population. They encourage and subsidize entrepreneurial activity when it is clear that only a very few business proprietors earn more than ordinary workers.

          Why do we choose the wrong metrics for success? But then why do we enjoy roller coasters and fake wrestling?