Opening our eyes to progress

By Murray MacAdam | Sunday, July 23rd, 2000

The Ice Storm made for awful living but it sure boosted the economy.

"Caught up in the pursuit of prosperity and security, our ideology of presperity has evoked its gods (economic growth, technological development, scientific advancement, and unrestricted expansion of the market or the state). But our gods have betrayed us! They require sacrifices in exchange for providing us with material prosperity - mounting poverty, destruction of health and the environment, relentless elimination of jobs and reduction of the quality of work...."

- Bob Goudzwaard and Harry de Lange, Beyond Poverty and Affluence: Toward a Canadian Economy of Care.

WASN'T THE ICE STORM OF '98 GREAT!

That tempest crippled life for thousands of people in Ontario and Quebec, forcing many to leave frozen homes to bed down in emergency shelters, and toppling thousands of trees.

But no matter. All that damage had to be repaired, so it boosted the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And if this measure of economic output is growing, all is well in the land. Our lives are getting better.

Or at least that’s how it’s been until recently. But a rising clamour of voices is disputing that conventional wisdom. They argue that the Gross Domestic Product is indeed “gross”, because it does not provide an accurate indicator of human well-being. If it ignores the hardship caused by a calamity like the Ice Storm, then something is dramatically wrong.

CPJ has long been one of those voices, based on our belief that we are progressing when we truly live out God’s command to love our neighbour and care for creation. Our society may enjoy “boom times” but is not achieving well-being if many of our neighbours suffer from hunger or homelessness, or if we are ravaging God’s creation.

"What we count and measure
signifies what we value.” - Joe Jordan, Liberal MP

“There is no more dangerous illusion in our society than the equation of economic growth with well-being and prosperity,” warns Ron Colman, a former political science professor now heading a “genuine progress” research project for Nova Scotia. “All of us - politicians, economists, the general public - are hooked on the myth that “more is better.”

Has economic growth improved our lives? We have less free time and more child poverty, notes Colman.

Worshipping the god of growth has blinded us to our reckless use of creation, he adds. It has produced massive pollution and changed the climate in a way that threatens the planet. Activities that degrade our quality of life, like crime, pollution and gambling, make the economy grow.

Plugged into progressThe Quality of Life index for Ontario
Genuine Progress Index for Atlantic Canada
GPI in Alberta

Echoing another key CPJ belief, Colman notes that a glaring shortcoming of the GDP is that pays no attention to the informal economy. “Ironically, while we are so busy counting everything on which we spend money, we assign no value to vital activities that really contribute to our well being. Voluntary community service, household work, and parental child-rearing are not counted or valued in our measures of progress, because they are not paid. They add $325 billion a year of valuable services to the Canadian economy.”

Mark Anielski from the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development in Calgary asks: “How can we continue to use a measure like the GDP that ignores that which makes life worthwhile, including time devoted to volunteerism, housework, parenting, and leisure? How can we accept economic accountancy that does not deal with the effects of income inequality and poverty on social cohesion?”

In Ottawa, backbench Liberal MP Joe Jordan has introduced a private member’s bill called the Canada Well-Being Measurement Act, which received first reading on April 5. Speaking on the bill on March 27, Jordan said:

“The GDP makes no distinction between money spent on education and money spent on cleaning up after automobile accidents...it takes no account of the unpaid work in homes and by volunteers... If we did not have that, our well-being would be significantly affected.

GDP fails to recognize changes in the availability of natural resources....The Atlantic cod is a classic example. The fisheries contribution to GDP was rising right up to the day the stocks disappeared....something that gave us some indication of the health of the stocks could have provided information which would have stimulated action to steer clear of the disaster that followed.”

The push for authentic indicators of human progress can also be seen in a recent statement by 400 leading economists who said the GDP fails as a measure of true prosperity. “New indicators of progress are urgently needed to guide our society,” they said. “The GPI is an important step in that direction.”

Measuring real progress

GPI? It stands for Genuine Progress Index. Nova Scotia’s index, launched by Ron Colman, integrates 20 social and environmental indicators into a measure of sustainable development. Colman developed the index after consulting community groups and government, so it would be seen to have practical policy value.

What refreshing indicators! Recognizing that prosperity and well being depend on the protection of our social and environmental assets, they assign value to natural resources. Unpaid voluntary and household work is measured. Crime, pollution and accidents are seen as economic costs, not gains. More free time and greater equality in society lead the index to rise. Colman describes the index as “commonsense economics that corresponds with the realities of our daily lives.”

Interest in alternative barometers of progress is picking up elsewhere, including Manitoba, Newfoundland and the Yukon. The Toronto Community Foundation issues an annual report card called Taking Toronto’s Vital Signs. A Quality of Life Index sponsored by the Ontario Social Development Council (OSDC) includes economic, social, environmental and health indicators. “Even though the economic indicators have recovered from the recession of the early Nineties, the social indicators are still down,” says council director Malcolm Shookner. The Canadian Policy Research Network is also involved, and is considering how citizens can take part in the process.

In Edmonton, community partners have come together in a venture called LIFE (Local Indicators For Excellence) which measures the local quality of life, including health, environmental, economic and social indicators. Elements of both individual and community well-being are tracked, such as the number of low-income households, physical activity, crisis support calls, air and water quality, voter turnout and volunteer time.

Mark Anielski is working on a GPI account for Alberta. “The GPI makes common sense because it measures that which makes life worthwhile,” he says. “It measures the benefits and costs of the most important community values - our natural resources, environment, families and time.”

CPJ staff Harry Kits, Greg deGroot-Maggetti and Murray MacAdam met Joe Jordan in April to discuss his Well-Being Measurement Act. He noted the political advantages to his bill, admitting that the government’s environmental record is “pretty embarrassing.”

While private member’s bills have a dismal record of success, the government’s February budget allocated $9 million to develop a set of indicators to measure environmental performance along with economic performance. So passage of the bill does not pose “a critical bottleneck” to starting the work, says Jordan.

He agreed with CPJ’s Harry Kits that policy changes are also needed and sees an increased role for government with new progress indicators. “We should be taxing things we don’t want people to do.” The problem is that “everyone is thinking short-term,” said Jordan, citing discontent over higher gasoline prices as an example.

This brief scan makes clear that people are thinking hard about what makes life enriching and what “progress” is. It’s about values, in a way that affirms biblical values of stewardship and justice. As GPI Atlantic notes, “Any index of progress is value-based and must answer the question “progress towards what?”

Public responses in the Atlantic region to the genuine progress message provides hope. One might think that this job-starved region would be hostile to the idea. Yet Ron Colman has found the reverse. “The things we measure are more important to people here than in places that are more materialistic. We have a phenomenon of people leaving this area for jobs elsewhere. They often come back because communities are stronger, life is less harried and the environmental quality better. “

Hopefully the shift in values represented by indicators of real progress will lead to the economy of care promoted by CPJ. “Stewardship of our economy is not about personal comfort or the accumulation of wealth, but the well-being of all people and of creation,” says Harry Kits. “ We need to go back to this original understanding of economics. Let’s renew Canada’s economy - our household - on this basis.”

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