Media Clipping — Broadcast date: October 2, 2002, CBC

Ron Colman on CBC Radio Commentary

Introduction:
Do you believe the figures on economic growth put out by government agencies every month? Ron Colman doesn't. He's the creator of the a different kind of growth meter called the Genuine Progress Index. It's based in Nova Scotia. On Commentary he says there's a lot more to measuring growth than just economics...

Ron Colman:
Indicators are powerful. What we count and measure reflects our values as a society and determines the policy agendas of governments.

We currently measure our progress and gauge our well-being according to a narrow set of indicators -- our economic growth rates. "The more the economy grows, the better off we are" or so the theory goes. Yet vital social and environmental factors remain invisible in these measures.

The more trees we cut down, the more fish we catch, and the more fossil fuels we burn, the faster the economy grows. Counting the depletion of our natural wealth as gain is simply bad accounting, like a factory owner who sells off his machinery and counts it as profit.

Our growth rates make no distinction between economic activity that creates benefit and that which causes harm. So long as money is being spent, the economy will grow. Crime, pollution, accidents, sickness, and natural disasters all expand the economy.

And many of the good things aren't counted at all like volunteer work and unpaid care-giving, because no money changes hands. And the economy can grow even as inequality and poverty increase.

So growth doesn't necessarily mean we're better off. In fact, scientists warn that the only biological organism that shares our current economic dogma that "more is better" is the cancer cell.

Fortunately, there are better ways to measure wellbeing and progress. Nova Scotia¹s new Genuine Progress Index or GPI assigns explicit value to environmental quality, population health, livelihood security, equity, free time, and educational attainment. It values unpaid voluntary and household work as well as paid work. It counts sickness, crime and pollution as costs not gains. The GPI can provide a more complete and accurate picture of how Canadians are really doing.

What the GPI currently shows is a mixed message. Canadians have more material goods; smoking rates are down; our drinking water is cleaner; and we are recycling more. But we are also twice as likely to be victims of crime as a generation ago; volunteer work is down 9% in the last decade; we are more stressed; obesity rates have doubled; we are losing many of our old forests; and greenhouse gas emissions are up 20% to twice the per capita rate of the British. We're also becoming a more unequal society -- the poor got poorer in the last decade, and the gap between rich and poor grew sharply.

If we measure and count what really matters to Canadians, we'll value our social, economic, and environmental assets properly, and they'll get the attention they deserve. Then we can act effectively to ensure that we leave a better Canada for our children.

For Commentary, I'm Ron Colman in Halifax.

Copyright © 2002, CBC

Geniune Progress Index Media Coverage