ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the assessments of the preceding chapters and evaluates the different measures for use in strategies and policies of social progress. Human welfare might be the ultimate goal of such progress but is difficult to quantify and might even distort progress if used in its definition and measurement. The doubtful validity of most measures that look beyond conventional economic growth calls for a cautious approach like modifying economic indicators for produced and non-produced (natural) capital consumption. Such modification would generate fairly reliable measures of “green growth.” The relatively optimistic picture conveyed by conventional and environmentally adjusted economic indicators changes when environmental concerns and social inequities are accounted for in non-monetary terms. The Human Development Index increased slowly only in the past and is predicted to do so at an even slower pace in the future. Doomsday scenarios predict a decline of the HDI. At least in the USA happiness seems to stagnate despite economic progress; the reason could be the steep increase of inequality in income and wealth.
