ABSTRACT
The Challenge of Sustainable Welfare Measurement ................................. 18 Section 1: Evolution of the Genuine Progress Indicator Framework ....... 20 Section 2: How the GPI Attempts to Correct These Deficiencies .............. 21 Section 3: Theory and Critiques ..................................................................... 22 Section 4: An Updated GPI Methodology .................................................... 25
GPI Contributions ....................................................................................... 27 Item E: Value of Household Work and Parenting .............................. 27 Item F: Value of Higher Education ...................................................... 28 Item G: Value of Volunteer Work ......................................................... 28
GPI Deductions ............................................................................................ 29 Item N: Cost of Commuting ................................................................. 29 Item P: Cost of Automobile Accidents ................................................ 30 Item Q: Cost of Water Pollution ........................................................... 30 Item T: Loss of Wetlands ........................................................................ 32 Item U: Loss of Farmland ...................................................................... 32 Item V: Loss of Primary Forests and Damage from Logging Roads ........................................................................................................ 34 Item X: Carbon Dioxide Emissions Damage ...................................... 36 Item Y: Cost of Ozone Depletion .......................................................... 37 Item AB: The Genuine Progress Indicator .......................................... 38 Item AC: Per Capita GPI ........................................................................ 38
Section 5: Results and Implications ............................................................... 38 Section 6: Using GPI as a Guide to Public Policy ........................................ 43
Economic Globalization ............................................................................. 44
On October 28, 2005, the following headlines appeared in leading newspapers throughout the United States:
“GDP Muscles Through”
“Economy Brushes Off Storms and Expands by 3.8 Percent in 3Q, Beating Estimates”
“The U.S. Economy Shook Off Headwinds from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to Grow at a Faster-than-Expected 3.8 Percent Annual Rate in the Third Quarter, a Commerce Department Report Showed Friday” (Reuters)
Perhaps no headline in recent history does a better job of illustrating why our nation’s most trusted measure of economic performance is so woefully out of sync with people’s everyday experiences. In one swoop, these headlines dismissed the inequitable and catastrophic social, environmental, and economic toll associated with 1,836 preventable deaths; over 850,000 housing units damaged, destroyed, or left uninhabitable; disruption of 600,000 jobs; permanent inundation of 118 square miles of marshland; destruction of 1.3 million acres of forest; and contamination caused by millions of gallons of floodwaters tainted by sewage, oil, heavy metals, pesticides, and other toxins as irrelevant to the U.S. economy.1
