GEOG 352
ALTERNATIVES TO GDP AND HUMAN NEEDS
Housekeeping Items
Today, I will build on Stephanie and Haley’s presentation.
• As they noted, GDP includes money spent on “bads”, not just goods and
services – i.e. cleaning up oil spills and other environmental problems,
health care costs for cancer patients and people with other chronic
conditions, building prisons, securing homes and offices with security
systems (and, in the U.S., with guns), addressing crime through police, the
effects of drug and alcohol abuse, dealing with mental health issues. It
also doesn’t take into account all the positive contributions to social wellbeing that are not part of the monetized economy.
•The Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) was created to add those things in,
and subtract the bads, to get a better sense of social well-being.
Mark Anielski, one of the developers of the GPI, has created what he
calls his ‘Genuine Wealth Model’. I’ve used his book, The Economics of
Happiness as a text in this course.
http://www.anielski.com/alberta-international-gpiisew-graphs/
http://www.anielski.com/videos/
Human Needs
• Stephanie and Haley distinguished between needs and wants. In a society
oriented around wants, people are consumers. In a society around needs,
people can be citizens – ling at what’s in the best interest of their families,
communities, nation, and Earth. It’s hard to envision a transition to
sustainability until we shift from a consumer society to a citizen society.
• What needs are most important to you? What stops you sometimes from
making them a bigger priority? What are your “guilty (consumer)
pleasures?
• How do you envision society making the shift?
• Are there ways of fighting back against the constant bombardment by
advertising and other messages encouraging us to buy and to identify
ourselves with the things we own?