Well Being over GDP?
The Wellbeing Economy Government partnership has formed to shift our global priorities from growth to quality of life and greater wellbeing for humanity. The coalition aims to transform economies around the world to deliver shared well-being for all by 2040.
GDP percentage changes aren’t reflective of the true wellbeing of a nation. These quantitative calculations neglect to account for the qualitative conditions of its people. Therefore there are new issues that we should focus on for the betterment of the global population.
Chasing GDP growth has had detrimental effects. Prioritizing growth “at all costs” has led to many crises such as cost of living crisis, biodiversity loss, climate emergencies, and more. Therefore a transformation is necessary and of utmost importance.
“I often say that we need to shift from power, profit and patriarchy to people, planet and prosperity.”
– Sandrine Dixson-Declève, CO-PRESIDENT OF THE CLUB OF ROME
In just the last few months, New Zealand published its first national Wellbeing Report at the same time the EU recognized the need to shift to a well-being economy and the WHO launched an initiative that calls for well-being to be at the heart of economic recovery.
“Post growth” advocates or well being movement supporters believe that a post-growth society is one that resists the demand for constant economic growth.
Three key areas in need of improvement are mental health, educational achievement, and housing affordability and quality.
The term “polycrisis” refers to crises that occur in multiple global systems and become entangled in such a way that they produce harms greater than those crises would in aggregate.
“Not only is our planet sick from continued growth scenarios, because we have gone way beyond a healthy use of natural resources, but our people are getting increasingly sick, and our young people are making less and less money,” Dixson-Declève said.
Per Dixson-Declève, “…we need to shift from power, profit and patriarchy to people, planet and prosperity.”
Not surprising from an “all women” group, I guess.
Is GDP a measure of anything qualitative for its people?
Per U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a country’s GDP measures everything “except that which makes life worthwhile.”
Critics of GDP, which represents a country’s total output and value of goods and services over a specific time period, argue that the indicator is misleading because it measures “all” economic activity which encompasses the positives and negatives disregarding the quality of life of its people and labels it all as good. Is growth always good? No. Cutting down forest trees is growth but not ‘good’ growth. The measure implies that all growth is good which isn’t the case. Look under the hood, at the living conditions of the people. Are we really better?
GDP does not, for instance, take into account unpaid work, nor does it distinguish between economic activity which contributes positively or negatively to the health and well-being of people and the natural environment.
Many inequities exist within each country with the ‘richest’ countries having the greatest disparities. Using the words ‘shared’, ‘sustainable’, ‘green’, etc does not change the ramifications and effects of this growth. However those pleasant adjectives may make us feel good about growth while remaining in denial of its negative effects. Awareness is key in understanding the emergent compounding risks from this obsessive focus on growth only. We do not live solely in a quantitative world so classifying our progress by total output does not take into account the full picture of our global state. The growing inequities are being compounded as we enter a polycrisis based on the interrelated and interdependence of all the moving parts. In this case all the nation systems.
UN Secretary General Guterres joined in calling for GDP to be dropped as the ‘golden’ indicator of economic growth and instead shift to a Circular Economy and end of destruction of nature to fuel growth. A circular economy refers to an economic system that is based on the reuse and repair of materials to extend the life cycle of products for as long as possible and moves away from the world’s current “take, make, throw away” model.
“We must place true value on the environment and go beyond Gross Domestic Product as a measure of human progress and wellbeing,” Guterres said. “Let us not forget that when we destroy a forest, we are creating GDP. When we overfish, we are creating GDP. GDP is not a way to measure richness in the present situation in the world.”
Source: CNBC