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Showing posts with label Robert Kennedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robert Kennedy. Show all posts

Monday, September 22, 2014

The Genuine Progress Indicator

A recent discussion on Facebook regarding GDP as a measure of growth and stability led me to learn about GPI: Genuine Progress Indicator. GPI looks at 26 different indicators to measure citizens' well being. These indicators fall under three categories: economic, environmental, and social. After spending some time reading through the various benchmarks, it's become quite clear to me that this is a far more intelligent and detailed way to judge exactly how we are doing as a nation. Some states in our country have adopted GPI as a way to measure their successes or failures. Vermont became the first in 2012 and there is now a report on Maryland.

Consider what Robert Kennedy said when he was running for president in 1968.

Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.

Yep.