'Everything is not fine’: Nobel economist calls on globe to end obsession with GDP
Nobel Prize winning
economist Joseph Stiglitz is warning the world that unless the obsession many
world leaders have with gross national product (GDP) comes to end, there will
be little chance of adequately fighting back against the triple-threat of
climate destruction, the scourge of financial inequality, and the crises of
democracy now being felt around the globe.
In an op-ed in the Guardian,
Stiglitz says that these interrelated crises of environmental degradation and
human suffering have solidified in his mind the idea that “something is
fundamentally wrong with the way we assess economic performance and social
progress.” Defining GDP as “the
sum of the value of goods and services produced within a country over a given
period,” Stiglitz points to the financial crash of 2008—and the so-called
“recovery” which has taken place in the decade since—as evidence that the
widely-used measurement is not up to the task of providing an accurate
assessment of the economy, let alone the state of the world or the people
living in it.
“It should be clear
that, in spite of the increases in GDP, in spite of the 2008 crisis being well
behind us, everything is not fine,” writes Stiglitz. “We see this in the
political discontent rippling through so many advanced countries; we see it in
the widespread support of demagogues, whose successes depend on exploiting
economic discontent; and we see it in the environment around us, where fires
rage and floods and droughts occur at ever-increasing intervals.”...
https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/everything-is-not-fine-nobel-economist-calls-on-globe-to-end-obsession-with-gdp/
