Societal Benchmarks

I was recently thinking about the state of our society and economy. After some thinking, I came up with a question that I couldn't find a good answer to: Why is the state of a country always measured in financial terms (such as economy, GDP, wealth, etc)? Instead, shouldn't the measurement be based on the well being of the inhabitants and not their output?
Some people would argue that there is a correlation between these indicators and the well being of people, but my argument would be why use a indirect measurement at all?

One direct measurement of the well being of people is happiness. The correlation between happiness and wealth seem quite obvious when using common sense, but I would argue that it isn't. For example, Bhutan is a very poor country, but its citizens are on the top of the list when measured in happiness.

The main problem with measuring a society in financial terms is that the true goal is lost. Instead, production is maximized at the expense of happiness and well being. This whole line of reasoning leads me to my last and most important question: Why are we still working 40+ hours a week??

With the advances in technology, machinery, automation, etc, the efficiency of a person is significantly higher than it was a few decades ago, but the number of work hours remain the same. If we wanted to increase the well being of people, the number of hours worked should be decreased, thus allowing people to spend more time with family, friends and to do leisure activities. I would argue that people shouldn't have to work more than 30 hours a week. If a company needs more resources, they could hire more people to make up the difference. People would make less money, but they wouldn't be any less happy!!