How Should We Measure Progress?
How much economic growth is enough? Even as we bring the Earth to the edge - massive biological die-off, climate change, energy resource depletion, soil erosion, water pollution and depletion, etc. - the politicians move cautiously in their responses, having made economic growth the top priority. Even well meaning "greens" speak of "sustainable growth" - an oxymoron on a finite planet.
We need a new paradigm regarding how we define and measure progress.
“Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP — if we judge the United States of America by that — that GNP counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
“Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
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We need a new paradigm regarding how we define and measure progress.
June 6th marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. In his first major presidential campaign speech on March 18, 1968, Robert Kennedy had warned against measuring ourselves by wealth alone. His message is even more relevant today:
“Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP — if we judge the United States of America by that — that GNP counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.
“Yet the Gross National Product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”
For more on this topic and what we can do about it, visit:
Comments
I thought it was self-explanatory.
Incidentally, John F. Kennedy was once asked at a press conference which Japanese leader he most admired. He replied, Uesugi Yozan (of the Yonezawa and Okitama region). Seems JFK had read the book Bushido by Nitobe Inazo, written in 1899 (and still in print).
Yozan's greatest accomplishment: pulling the Uesugi Clan out of a centuries old debt and avoiding bankruptcy by encouraging not just the farming class but even the idle warrior class to work in cooperation and with mutual trust and respect. Yozan was able to convince the people to do this by actually setting examples himself, living modestly, and encouraging others to speak out on and question traditional (but not practical) customs.
A good lesson...