What GDP is NOT
Speech by Robert Kennedy, 18 March 1968, University of Kansas.
"We will never find a purpose for our nation nor for our personal satisfaction in the mere search for economic well-being, in endlessly amassing terrestrial goods.
We cannot measure the national spirit on the basis of the Dow-Jones, nor can we measure the achievements of our country on the basis of the gross domestic product (GDP) Our gross national product 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 those who break them. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. 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 tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."
3 Comments:
Thanks for this post. I wanted to make sure you saw the video too, produced by the Seattle-based Glaser Progress Foundation.
http://nz.youtube.com/watch?v=e51JnJPPY0E
Thanks for the link, Colin. Also, we can safely substitute "America" and "Americans" for any modern nation in the world, since everywhere the political rhetoric is infected with GDP based reasoning, as if fiscal growth is in itself a measure of progress and prosperity. Godspeed!
"We will never find a purpose for our nation nor for our personal satisfaction in the mere search for economic well-being, in endlessly amassing terrestrial goods."
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Of course not, but let me ask:
How much money do you think did Robert Kennedy make, and what was his net worth at the time of this speech?! And how well connected was his family, will say, what was the expected future earning power of his 'clan'?
I am reminded of the Godfather movie, in which Don Michael Corleone gathers the heads of all the families and tells them: “I want peace.” Of course, he wants peace, at this particular moment in time, as a rich man, well connected, well respected, he wants peace. But the others do not want peace. They want what he has first – and then they may want peace too! But then there will be others, who do not want peace, but want first what the people have who want peace etc.
To be told by a rich man that amassing wealth is non-satisfactory, is sort of comical! It’s great propaganda, but that is all it is.
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Celia Green has a great piece on “The evolution of dishonesty” well worth contemplating about:
“(…) We must suppose that a high degree of social dishonesty can greatly enhance the organism's chance of survival and successful reproduction, to the extent that the evolutionary pressures upon it depend on competition and successful interaction with its own kind rather than on attempts to overcome the difficulties presented by the physical world around it. Such a favourable strategy will probably become, as there is every reason to think it has become, a dominant mode of human behaviour and, like other successful strategies, it is likely to occur in association with a liking for this form of behaviour and a tendency in the direction of using it.”
“But since other people are aware of this strategy, a high degree of sophistication must be aimed at, and it may be that that will be best achieved if a person contrives to deceive himself concerning his own motives and intentions.”
http://celiagreen.blogspot.com/2007/03/evolution-of-dishonesty.html
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