Stiglitz on How Should We Measure Progress

Noble winner Joseph Stiglitz in a brief conversation about what is wrong with relying on Gross Domestic Product measures to evaluate if a society is doing well.  GDP is a very crude and very misleading measure  does not measure the change of income of the citizens or how that income is distributed.  It does not measure well being and has nothing to do with happiness.



Genuine Wealth Indicators and Genuine Progress Indicators are so much more integrated and effective measures of how well we are doing economically, environmentally and socially - stuff that is ignored by GDP measures.

Here is a link to a City of Edmonton study done on this much more comprehensive and meaningful approach to measuring success.   This works was done by Mark Anielski, the author of  "The Economics of Happiness." I will be inviting Mark to participate and use this information at a workshop being organized for March 17 in Edmonton as part of the Learning Our Way to the Next Alberta project spearheaded by the Alberta Teachers Association.  The workshop will gather together some enterprising opinion and thought leaders from various segments of our society, ecology and economy to look beyond the Alberta Advantage to consider what ought to be the Alberta Aspirations.  My personal context preference is to have Alberta striving to be the best FOR the world in a substantial and sustainable way, not merely a trite goal of being the best IN the world in some shallow consumptive competitiveness game.

I will keep you posted and provide informative links to interesting content and context on the updated Learning Our Way website that goes live next week.  (H/T to Duncan Kinney for the Stiglitz video link via LinkedIn)