Oct
1
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Affluenza

Last night I finished reading Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic, a book about the relentless pursuit of more in America.

One of the most interesting points the authors raise is the little-considered Great Choice Americans have made in the last half century or so. The implicit question America faced was what it would use the newfound wealth generated since the post-War boom for: increased leisure or increased consumption? America chose the latter, which has yielded us both the highest number of hours worked per year on average (even above the Japanese) and a rate of consumption which is about six times the globally-sustainable rate.

Another important point is the extreme disconnect between conventional measures of "progress" such as the GDP and our true levels of comfort, happiness, and real civic health:

Imagine receiving an annual holiday letter from distant friends, reporting their best year, because more money was spend than ever before. It began during the rainy season when the roof sprang leaks and their yard in the East Bay hills started to slide. The many layers of roofing had to be stripped to the rafters before the roof could be reconstructed, and engineers were required to keep the yard from eroding away. Shortly after, Jane broke her leg in a car accident. A hospital stay, surgery, physical therapy, replacing the car, and hiring help at home took a bite out of their savings. Then they were robbed, and replaced a computer, two TVs, a VCR, and a video camera. They also bought a home security system, to keep these new purchases safe. [1]

This analogy highlights the fact that many "bads" (as opposed to economic "goods") contribute to the growth of the GDP, even though few would argue that they make us better off. This includes things such as longer commutes, toxic spills (cleanup from the Exxon Valdez disaster), and declining public health. A public policy group called Redefining Progress has an initiative to generate GDP-like statistics which take these factors into account. They call one such measure the GPI, or Genuine Progress Indicator. According to this measure, America's "genuine progress" has been almost flat since 1950, with a modest drop since the mid-1970s, as opposed to the GDP, which is nearly triple now what it was in 1950. As an (armchair) economist, I really appreciate steps such as these which attempt to bring the economic orthodoxy more in line with

[1] WHY BIGGER ISN'T BETTER: The Genuine Progress Indicator — 1999 Update