General Progress Indicator (GPI)

Western society is oriented around short term gain and borrowing against the future. Rather than using the inadequate measure of GDP or GNP to point to success, we should embrace a much more comprehensive evaluation such as the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) to determine the state of human welfare. Unlike GDP and GNP, the GPI would not be a calculator that can add but not subtract. GPI would offset positives with the countless negative activities mankind undertakes. Forty years ago the late Senator Robert Kennedy had this to say;

"The Gross National Product includes air pollution and advertising for cigarettes and the ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and jails for the people who break them. GNP includes the destruction of the redwoods and the death of Lake Superior. It grows with the production of napalm and missiles and nuclear warheads…it does not allow for the health of our families, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It is indifferent to the decency of our factories and of the safety of our streets alike. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, or the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials…it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile."
Source; Jeremy Rifkin, The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future Is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream.