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Measure What We Really Want
November 28, 2008
To take children seriously is to value them for who they are right now rather than adults-in-the-making.
-Alfie Kohn
-Alfie Kohn
"The only legitimate function of an economic system is to serve life. At present, however, we assess economic performance solely against financial indicators — gross domestic product and stock prices — while disregarding social and environmental consequences. We are now paying the price for years of managing the economy for financial performance, which translates into making money for people who have money — that is, making rich people richer. It was not a wise choice. We now bear the devastating costs of this foolishness in the form of massive social and environmental damage and financial instability.
"This might be a good time to start evaluating economic performance against indicators of what we really want — healthy children, families, communities, and natural systems. This would place life values ahead of money values and dramatically reframe the public policy side of our economic decision-making. Happiness, by the way, is an important indicator of physical and psychological health."
If you value intellectual stimulation, building your social network, seeing early childhood from 70 national perspectives, and having fun, the World Forum is just what the doctor ordered for you...
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Advance Number and Letter Skills! Coggols Unique Learning Activities for:
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Comments (2)
Displaying All 2 Commentswoodbridge, United States
What good will we be able to do if no one has any money? We do need money to help people and people who have money are in the best position to help. If we take away the free choices of people to do as they see fit with their own money we will eliminate charity and encourage people to protect their money rather than create opportunities for others. The most generous people I know are wealthy people, our hospitals, libraries, universities and most charitable organizations receive most of their funding from wealthy donors. Politicians continue to create resentment against people who have money because it feeds our jealousies and it wins votes. In reality it is the wealthy who do the most good. We already have the most progressive tax system in the entire world. Some people are more interested in control and power and would rather take our choices away. Wealthy people in most cases have worked hard to get where they are, we put the motivation of generations of workers at risk if we take away incentive. There are selfish people of all types but mostly those who have alot give alot. Indiviuals practice more empathy than goverment insitutions. If the wealthy of our country go down, we will all go down with them. I would love to see more balance in the political views expressed in Exchange articles.
RIE
Los Angeles, CA, United States
The problems in our economy are, interestingly, driven by a left-brain bias, and we need to have a more right-brain, empathy-driven economy. I'm completely in support of the author's comments!
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