“So right now, GNP is dominant. Right now the main way we decide whether or not the nation is doing well has to do with gross national product. Okay. So tonight I’m going to give you two options about what I do. Either I go walk over to the river and I sit and I watch the beautiful lights of Big Ben and Parliament, or I decide I’m going to go rent a car. And I’m going to drive to one of London’s many pubs, and I’m going to have three or four beers. And then I’m going to get back in my car, and being an American I’m unlikely, especially after three or four beers, to remember what side of the road you drive on. And so I drive down the road, and let’s say then I have an accident. And I run into a car that has three people in it, two of whom go to the hospital, and one of whom dies, and their family have to go buy a coffin and bury them. Which of those two things is better for London’s economy? …
“The second one, that’s right. Because all GNP does is measure economic activity, economic input, and there’s all kinds of economic input in the second option: getting drunk, renting a car, killing people, hospital costs, etcetera. GNP is neutral with regard to any value except money. That’s all GNP cares about: add up all the money values.”
The above is a brief excerpt from a great talk given recently by Tim Kasser, Associate Professor of Psychology at Knox College Illinois and author of The High Price of Materialism and Psychology and Consumer Culture. If you’ve got the time to spare, this is well worth a listen.
