A recent New York Times report showing a major drop in child poverty got everyone’s attention. While pundits are now arguing over both the accuracy of the data and what to credit for the reduction, this debate belies a more fundamental issue: taking children above an arbitrary poverty line is a weak goal. The true goal of public policy should be to support widespread human flourishing.

Flourishing is not an abstraction, and it goes beyond mere pleasure or prosperity. Harvard professor Tyler VanderWeele, who leads the Human Flourishing Program, suggests flourishing encompasses the measurable domains of happiness and life satisfaction; mental and physical health; meaning and purpose; character and virtue; and close social relationships.

A sixth domain, that of financial and material stability, crosses the other five as a prerequisite for flourishing. Eliminating poverty is thus essential but not an end in and of itself: eliminating poverty is a necessary but insufficient enabling factor for people to live whatever they define as the good life.