Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was first used in the United Kingdom to measure their war-time production. Since the whole economy was geared up to wage war, it was a fair measure of how much the system was turning over.

While the second world war has finished, GDP is peculiarly still the measurement system of choice for economic performance, measuring crime, environmental destruction and catastrophes at the same value as activity that leads to genuine growth. Furthermore, countries of the world are “ranked” as “developed” or “developing” based on GDP - an additional system built on top of an inappropriate one.

But as they say, money can’t buy happiness, at least once you’re over the poverty line. Happiness is a much harder equation than GDP, and something that global systems don’t spend a lot of time concerning themselves with fulfilling today.

Read more at Worldchanging…

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