The Discounted Economy highlights how our present system of national accounting, the Gross Domestic Product, presents a grossly limited and skewed view of a society's well-being. The belief that economic growth, per se, is an unquestionable good is the central illusion that obscures our ability to identify the negative consequences of economic activity. A new economic tool called the Genuine Progress Index (GPI) is introduced as a saner more balanced approach to measuring well-being. The GPI takes into account the true costs of crime, pollution, and accidents and does not discount the contributions of volunteering, unpaid domestic work, lost free time or the disparity between rich and poor.