I just boosted the GNP … and I couldn’t be less thrilled about it.
With economic growth like this, who needs recessions?
I just added about $10,000 more to the Gross National Product than usual…and I’m mad as heck about it.
Odds are you’ve done the same. And you should feel just as mad.
I’m talking about one of the bizarre implications of the way that much of the “political class” — regardless of partisan bent — talks about “economic growth.”
A year ago, a ferocious storm ripped through a mile-wide swath of Denver and its western suburbs. Two-inch-wide hailstones broke car windows, smashed crops, and tore holes in rooftops.
My house was dead-center in that path. An insurance inspector only needed 30 seconds to determine that our roof was a total loss — though, amazingly, our solar panels survived without a problem.
By the time the storm was done, it had caused enough damage to require insurers to pay $2.3 billion in claims (our house’s share was about $10,000). And that doesn’t account for countless uninsured losses or the time spent by residents and businesses picking up the mess.
But the folks at the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, who calculate the official Gross National Product, count that $2.3 billion as a plus for the economy.
Now, I understand the logic of that calculation and even the morality behind it. A lot of people did hard, honest work to put a new roof on our house. No doubt that enhanced our family’s quality of life.
But was the $10,000 really an indication of growth in our nation’s well-being?
Are the tens of billions of dollars being spent to reconstruct Houston, Florida and Puerto Rico after last year’s climate change-fueled hurricanes really a reason for optimism about our future?
Are the tens of billions spent on medical care for opioid addicts a sign of a healthy economy?
I, for one, can think of a lot of ways to spend $10,000 that would be a heck of a lot better for our health, our environment and our peace of mind.
Fifty years ago, Bobby Kennedy wrestled with the same paradox. In a speech at the University of Kansas, he observed that:
Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product — if we judge the United States of America by that — that 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 the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. . . .
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.
Since Kennedy’s speech, a number of alternative measurements of a country’s well-being have been created. They include:
- The World Happiness Report, produced by Nobel Prize-winning economist Jeffrey Sachs and his colleagues for the United Nations (the U.S. is ranked 18th, just below Luxembourg and a little ahead of the United Arab Emirates. Finland tops the list).
- The Happy Planet Index, produced by the New Economics Foundation, a major think tank in the U.K. (We’re #108 here, just above Bulgaria and Afghanistan. Costa Rica is #1.)
- The Gross National Happiness Survey and Index, developed for the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan, whose king declared way back in 1972 (27 years before the country’s first television station was created) that “Gross National Happiness is more important than Gross Domestic Product.”
- The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). (Spoiler alert: Lately, we haven’t been progressing.)
- The Human Development Index, also produced by the United Nations. (We’re #10 in this one. Congratulations, Norway.)
That’s great.
But when was the last time you heard any major politician, political pundit, or opinion leader cite any of those measurements?
Allow me to make a suggestion.
The next time you read in the newspaper — if you still do that old-fashioned thing — that the president is bragging about a 3 percent increase in the GNP or the opposition party is saying that it could do better, write a letter to the editor.
Ask the paper to add the corresponding figure for one of the alternative measurements mentioned above to any story mentioning the GNP, as a public service.
If the article says, “the GNP rose by 0.5 percent this quarter,” it should add that “the GHI (Gross Happiness Index) dropped by 0.2 percent.” If it reports that the our country’s economy is now $21 trillion dollars, it should note that our HPI is now 20.4 (To those who ask, “what does 20.4 mean?”, I would respond, “what does 21 trillion mean?”)
The alternative metric — whichever is chosen — will take some time getting used to.
But I reckon you and I will feel better knowing that having to spend $10,000 to recover from a man-made catastrophe will be treated as a negative.
Equally important, spending “free” time taking care of an ailing loved one, planting a garden, or organizing a community-building event will be recorded as a positive.
That’s a measurement for the way we really want to live our lives.
