Happiness, Sustainability, and Economic Success (GDP Reform)

[EMJohnson]

From an article in The Politicizer:

Last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, called for radical changes to how nations of the world measure economic and societal health. He announced that France would begin shifting away from using Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary matrix to measure the success of its economy.

This comes on the heels of a report released by an international panel of economists led by Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz, recommending new global measurement methods for economic output. In line with these recommendations, French statistics agencies will begin to explore ways to incorporate quality of life measurements (health, education, environment, social connections, personal activities, etc) and long-term sustainability (both environmental and economic) data alongside GDP into calculations of national economic well-being.

The authors of this report posit that GDP, and GDP per capita are currently the widest used tools to measure and compare national success globally. Because of this exclusivity, ensuring raw economic growth and growth in production often monopolize national policy making. This is often to the direct detriment of the environment, and
high GDPs often ignore the realities of unequal distribution of wealth, overworking of populations, growing class separations and other factors that may lead to lower quality of life in both the short term, and the long term. They argue that by using different measuring techniques that take all of these factors into account, policy priorities may shift in a way that will provide greater access to the pursuit of happiness and a higher quality of life for all.

Examining our own country with these recommendations in mind, we know that the United States enjoys the world’s highest GDP and a very high GDP per capita. This makes us, within the current paradigm, the greatest global super power and wealthiest nation. But does this equal societal success? (Excerpt; read the full article at The Politicizer)

The writer then goes on to discuss how environmental sustainability and quality of life should be included in measures of a country's success. I think it's a really good point - GDP is basically the rote capitalist's way of measuring how good a country is, but we all know from experience that a high GDP doesn't take into account things like poverty, happiness (anyone heard of Bhutan's Gross National Happiness?), and whether or not the country is destroying the environment in order to be rich. Thoughts?

[DJ13]

1. I like it, but I hope it doesnt end up as corrupted as the GDP became

Undercounting inflation is one of the ways the GDP became corrupted over the last few decades.

[Po_d Mainiac]

2. Adding environmental impact, great idea

That would make China's GDP about as putrid as it's waterways :grr: