The Keys To The New Kingdom

[John Strohl]

One of the most significant understandings driving the success of the Prometheus Project must be the recognition of both the need and the capacity to measure the value of our endeavors in broader and more significant terms than simply GDP (Gross Domestic Product). I have come across no clearer discussion of this recently than the article linked here: http://www.utne.com/realizing-the-vision/americas-deficit-attention...

The opening lines of the article read like this - "The political debate in the United States and Europe has focused attention on public financial deficits and how best to resolve them. Tragically, the debate largely ignores the deficits that most endanger our future.

In the United States, as Republican deficit hawks tell the story, “America is broke. We must cut government spending on social programs we cannot afford. And we must lower taxes on Wall Street job creators so they can invest to get the economy growing, create new jobs, increase total tax revenues, and eliminate the deficit.”

Democrats respond, “Yes, we’re pretty broke, but the answer is to raise taxes on Wall Street looters to pay for government spending that primes the economic pump by putting people to work building critical infrastructure and performing essential public services. This puts money in people’s pockets to spend on private sector goods and services and is our best hope to grow the economy.”

Democrats have the better side of the argument, but both sides have it wrong on two key points.

• First, both focus on growing GDP, ignoring the reality that under the regime of Wall Street rule, the benefits of GDP growth over the past several decades have gone almost exclusively to the 1 percent—with dire consequences for democracy and the health of the social and natural capital on which true prosperity depends.
• Second, both focus on financial deficits, which can be resolved with relative ease if we are truly serious about it; and ignore far more dangerous and difficult-to-resolve social and environmental deficits. I call it a case of deficit attention disorder.

To achieve the ideal of a world that secures health and prosperity for all people for generations to come, we must reframe the public debate about the choices we face as a nation and as a species. We must measure economic performance against the outcomes we really want, give life priority over money, and recognize that money is a means, not an end."

Read the whole article @: http://www.utne.com/realizing-the-vision/americas-deficit-attention...

 

I strongly encourage everyone to read this because it's literally the next and most important step we must take in revolutionizing our world ad the way it works. We must measure Gross Domestic Well Being and Gross Domestic Happiness and Gross Natural Well Being and Gross Environmental Balance. In other words we must measure and report on what is truly significant to us. What we measure and report on is what we will focus on and improve. My deepest appreciation to Dr. David Korten for putting these thoughts down on the written page for us all to read and connect with! When we measure what matters, we discover the keys to the new kingdom.

 

Dr. David Korten (livingeconomiesforum.org) is the author of Agenda for a New Economy, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, and the international best seller When Corporations Rule the World.  He was recognized as an Utne Reader Visionary in 2011.