Ben Buckman.net

Via this great post of "20 Must-See Business TED Talks," I found a quote from Robert Kennedy on the Gross National Product, which desperately needs to be repeated these days:

"Too much and too long, we seem to have surrendered community excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our gross national product ... if we should judge America by that - counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for those who break them. It counts the destruction of our redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and the cost of a nuclear warhead, and armored cars for police who fight riots in our streets. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education, or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages; the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage; neither our wisdom nor our learning; neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country; it measures everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it tells us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

I'm very pessimistic about this country these days. Every economist or anti-economist (like Nassim Taleb on Planet Money last week) who seems credible is predicting doom and gloom. The fragility of our economy is frightening. We don't produce enough genuine value in the economy to justify a recovery to anything like what was (artificially) before. Without an economic recovery (the assumption and achievement of which underlies all deficit-spending advocacy), the US federal debt becomes a global crisis. From there it's only a deeper spiral downwards. With Congress divided along dangerous fault lines, and an opposition party lacking any positive agenda and playing to the populace's worst instincts (of which there are already no shortage), I also don't have much faith in government doing what needs to be done.

So maybe it's time we stop thinking about restoring GDP as a vacuum and start thinking more about our GNH, our Gross National Happiness, the measure devised by the King of Bhutan and presaged by Robert Kennedy. By any measure the US GNH right now is extremely depressed. I think - despite the economists in his administration who stick to failed models - that President Obama has a basically GNH-oriented mindset, and it's why I still support him. But maybe he should start channelling Robert Kennedy for the next few months and help change the tone.