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 well- being 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.

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?