o create a safe and sustainable future for the next generations, we must change how we label and measure countries' progress—through a metric that goes beyond economic growth and prioritizes wellbeing rooted in resourcefulness with ourselves and our planet.
For decades the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a tool to measure economic growth used as a global key indicator for a country's success, has been considered incomplete, even misleading. In 1968, three decades after the GDP’s introduction, Robert Kennedy said: “Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, [...], the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder [...], and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. 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 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. If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in the world.”
Despite all shortcomings in the GDP’s accounting for wellbeing and sustainability, the metric became our global paradigm, one lens through which we see the world. Measuring and comparing our countries’ success through the GDP-shaped societal structures and the thoughts we tell ourselves. As a late millennial and first-gen student from a well-resourced country, I grew up in a society that equates economic growth with success. I unconsciously learned what’s acceptable (attaching self-worth to productivity) and what’s not (embodying felt emotions). Unlike many others, I was privileged with the capacity to unlearn beliefs and habits I perceived as harmful to my mental and physical wellbeing.
Questioning the paradigm we grew up with, our most profound beliefs about the world, is challenging. As systems thinker Donella Meadows explained: “Your paradigm is so intrinsic to your mental process that you are hardly aware of its existence, until you try to communicate with someone with a different paradigm.” It’s easier to continue doing things how they’ve always been done—especially when you’ve been growing up in a specific paradigm—economic growth as a priority—and are surrounded by people all sharing the same paradigm.
Luckily, there are communities operating from paradigms that go beyond economic growth and which prioritize wellbeing rooted in resourcefulness with ourselves and the planet. We can, for example, build on the work of researchers who have started to develop metrics such as the Thriving Places Index, which includes factors such as mental and physical health, education and learning, and “green” infrastructure; the capability approach, that acknowledges the multidimensionality of people’s real opportunities; or preference-based approach to wellbeing, that takes into account that people disagree about the relative importance of different life dimensions. All these metrics go beyond the GDP by integrating sustainability, wellbeing, and equity.
To create a safe and sustainable future for the next generations, we must change how we label and measure progress. The pandemic opened an opportunity to collectively question and redesign a global wellbeing metric. The knowledge and tools are there. What is needed are bold leaders with the intention and willingness to transcend paradigms to apply different thinking on how we define and measure our country's success beyond economic growth. The policymakers and business leaders who are ready to shift and move into a new paradigm—on a personal level and, in turn, on a national and global level—will plant seeds that will be remembered long after they are gone.
a global affairs media network
Redefining Our Global Understanding of Success
Photo via Adobe Stock.
January 17, 2023
To create a safe and sustainable future for the next generations, we must change how we label and measure countries' progress—through a metric that goes beyond economic growth and prioritizes wellbeing rooted in resourcefulness with ourselves and our planet, writes Eva Keiffenheim.
T
o create a safe and sustainable future for the next generations, we must change how we label and measure countries' progress—through a metric that goes beyond economic growth and prioritizes wellbeing rooted in resourcefulness with ourselves and our planet.
For decades the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a tool to measure economic growth used as a global key indicator for a country's success, has been considered incomplete, even misleading. In 1968, three decades after the GDP’s introduction, Robert Kennedy said: “Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, [...], the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder [...], and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children. 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 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. If this is true here at home, so it is true elsewhere in the world.”
Despite all shortcomings in the GDP’s accounting for wellbeing and sustainability, the metric became our global paradigm, one lens through which we see the world. Measuring and comparing our countries’ success through the GDP-shaped societal structures and the thoughts we tell ourselves. As a late millennial and first-gen student from a well-resourced country, I grew up in a society that equates economic growth with success. I unconsciously learned what’s acceptable (attaching self-worth to productivity) and what’s not (embodying felt emotions). Unlike many others, I was privileged with the capacity to unlearn beliefs and habits I perceived as harmful to my mental and physical wellbeing.
Questioning the paradigm we grew up with, our most profound beliefs about the world, is challenging. As systems thinker Donella Meadows explained: “Your paradigm is so intrinsic to your mental process that you are hardly aware of its existence, until you try to communicate with someone with a different paradigm.” It’s easier to continue doing things how they’ve always been done—especially when you’ve been growing up in a specific paradigm—economic growth as a priority—and are surrounded by people all sharing the same paradigm.
Luckily, there are communities operating from paradigms that go beyond economic growth and which prioritize wellbeing rooted in resourcefulness with ourselves and the planet. We can, for example, build on the work of researchers who have started to develop metrics such as the Thriving Places Index, which includes factors such as mental and physical health, education and learning, and “green” infrastructure; the capability approach, that acknowledges the multidimensionality of people’s real opportunities; or preference-based approach to wellbeing, that takes into account that people disagree about the relative importance of different life dimensions. All these metrics go beyond the GDP by integrating sustainability, wellbeing, and equity.
To create a safe and sustainable future for the next generations, we must change how we label and measure progress. The pandemic opened an opportunity to collectively question and redesign a global wellbeing metric. The knowledge and tools are there. What is needed are bold leaders with the intention and willingness to transcend paradigms to apply different thinking on how we define and measure our country's success beyond economic growth. The policymakers and business leaders who are ready to shift and move into a new paradigm—on a personal level and, in turn, on a national and global level—will plant seeds that will be remembered long after they are gone.
