I have spoken of the desperate need to rethink and change our global economic systems (see previous post The world Economy – are we really doing better? Measurement is everything!). Bhutan has metrics in place since 1998 to measure Gross National Happiness (GNH) using over 9 major metrics instead of just GDP (see previous post Health – Stress/Lifestyle 1). Of course, the world leaders and economists who should know better, poo-poo this as just the minor goings-on of some poor Buddhist third world nation that has no consequence for the rest of the world.
Critics of Bhutan’s GNH measures cite the country’s political problems as evidence that GNH doesn’t work, as if our current economic measures (i.e. GDP) do work and somehow are evidence that we have harmonic political situations?? It’s like comparing Apples to Tomatoes and complaining that tomatoes do not grow in orchards. The critics are thinking from the current system and cannot break out of the box of their rigid paradigms. Are the Bhutanese rolling around in money because of the GNH? No! but are they as depressed as many in the developed world? Many sociologists and Anthropologists refer to the community aspects of these cultures as evidence that they are much more connected and hence ‘happier’ than we in the western world seem to be because of the cohesive kinds of community’s in which they live. One common critique of the developed nations is something often referred to as ‘The disease of Isolation.’ This is referring to the individualistic nature of how we live – isolated form each other even with neighborhoods. What most critics of Bhutan’s GNH so often keep missing is what are the rest of the GNH metrics showing. We have no such metrics in our economy to compare, and so we don’t, merely using the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) as the only comparison to just one aspect of Bhutan’s eighth metric. (The nine metrics are Psychological well-being; Time use; Community Vitality; Cultural Vitality, diversity and resilience; Human Health; Educations; Ecological diversity and resilience; Living Standard (the economic measures); and last, Good Governance).
Well, Guess what, in the recent World Economic Forum: Davos 2019, New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, gave a compelling argument for measuring what is important: ‘Kindness, Empathy, and Well-Being.’ New Zealand has a well-being budget.
Ardern said compellingly, “We need to address the societal well-being of our nation, not just the economic well-being,” she said during a discussion on More than GDP. Despite a supposedly good economy, the rates of homelessness, suicide, and depression are epidemic. This means that from 2019, her government will present a “well-being budget” to gauge the long-term impact of political policy on the quality of people’s lives. As I have said before, “We have to stop measuring the economy by how well the rich people are doing.”
What happens when you ask monetarily rich people who have all the creature comforts and enough money to feel no anxiety whatsoever about what they need to feel secure, they are totally oblivious to the basic needs of everyday people. I like that in the USA at this time we have all these billionaires and poor millionaires heading up the various agencies, and to add insult to injury, most of the greedy and corrupt CEO’s of various corporations are heading up the agencies that regulate their businesses – talk about putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Sadly, the USA is not alone in this problem, although the rest of the developed nations do not seem to have these ‘acceptable’ levels of corruption at the blatant level here.
When I look at stories from around the world that are not focused on the doom and gloom the mass media like to concentrate upon, I find wonderful stories of communities rebuilding themselves and maintaining localized economic systems. Unless we begin to measure things that really are important to us and with meaningful metrics, we will keep getting the same old crapola we are suffering under. This has been a central theme of the blog. Getting to a world where we live sustainably with each other and the rest of the natural world.
We cannot keep ‘Strip-Mining’ the planet just to create more stuff with the only metric being profit and absolutely no regard for why we are doing it. Entrepreneurs like Paul Hawken (Google Drawdown) and Less Leopold (google Runaway Inequity), among many others, have formulated plans and systems to begin a larger scale move to a better world that includes equity (I talked about this in a previous post Adapting to Transformational changes 3 – Creating dialogue for ‘JUST’ Sustainability for Transformational changes). Any model for change that does not include equity for everyone and all life on this planet should be treated with suspicion. We have to value our cultural differences as a positive factor and not maintain this relentless homogenization of culture toward some one single consumer society. I used to use a cartoon in my class that spoke of this mindless blind-side of profit only management, “Despite the unimaginable horrors to come, we are pleased to announce that our last quarters profits will be the highest ever.” Think about Bhutan a poor developing country; think of New Zealand, a small developed country. Think about what it is they are trying to do. They are attempting to Measure what is important – us, not money! Money is merely a tool and not the end goal. Can we begin this change on a larger scale – YES. In another previous post (Imagination, Creativity, and Change 1) I talked about David and Goliath and how when David stepped up to the confrontation, he was already a winner, not a forlorn hope. When we decide to step up to the challenge and dismiss all the bullshit we get from the mainstream that is controlled by the elites, we will find our own power. First step is to evaluate our societies where they are now and then measure what we want to change and begin that change!
To be continued……..
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