Such a depressing topic, for those who like it serious here is a visual representation, and for those that like the edge taken off with humour, here's the skit version:
The history of how our economic system arose and how we haven't fixed it even after we realised its limitations (a very long time ago) is an interesting story I suggest finding on the web. I plan to read and reflect on Chapter 7 Our Economy and the Governance of Our Commons in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability sometime soon and I'll fill in what I learn from that here.
As a quick overall summary off the top of my head at the moment: our economic system doesn't account for the whole picture (e.g. environmental and social costs are usually externalised) and we measure our success based on a statistic that is woefully inadequate and was never intended for its current application; that statistic is GDP (the Gross Domestic Product) or otherwise referred to as GNP (Gross National Product). Simply put, it measures spending. This spending can be on things we consider positive or negative but as long as there is action and we are all spending more this number and representatively our economy grows. However, it is NOT an adequate measure of success because humans define success as positive (and sometime intangible things) such as health, good education, good relationships, and so on. Therefore we need a new measure, a GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator).
No comments:
Post a Comment