Man does not live by bread alone...

Reading Matt Haig's 'Notes on a Nervous Planet' and looking to see how he can help my understanding of just what is going on in our crazy world,  I was pretty chuffed to see that very early on, he said: 'This book seeks to recognise that what we feel is just as important as what we have.'

Sounds like common sense to me, but it's been overlooked by the great and the good who are in charge of running our country. One of the biggest surprises I've come across during my search for some sort of understanding of life on Planet Earth in the 21st Century is that our measure of success as a country, that which is at the centre of government thinking, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) takes no account of  our wellbeing or of the natural world. 

I can’t remember when I first heard about GDP. I’d not come across it when I was a teenager. It wasn’t on the political agenda in my younger life when I became pretty taken up with politics, went on marches and discussed world affairs late into the night. Capitalism’s need for investment opportunities helps me to see why a country’s success is measured by GDP, which is the market value of all goods and services produced.
As long ago as 1968 former US Senator Robert Kennedy spelled out pretty clearly why GDP is a poor way of measuring a society’s success and well-being and is, I reckon, worth recording in full:
‘Our Gross National Product 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 the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armoured cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. 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 everything, in short, except that which makes life worthwhile.’
Fast forward to 2018 and we find that GDP is heavily criticised.  Rarely a day passes when I’m not reminded that human wellbeing and environmental protection are very often in direct conflict with the drive for economic growth: I can help GDP by crashing my car. Lots of work in the car repair shop and, even better, I might have to buy a new car. If I spend time in the park and enjoy a picnic with friends I have done little for GDP but if I go shopping and pop into a restaurant for a meal I am doing my bit to help the economy. The glorious Amazon rain forest does nothing for GDP by just being there. Trees are cut by loggers economic growth. Built-in obsolescence. GDP is boosted if things don’t last or are superseded by a more desirable model. We daily throw away discarded ‘stuff’ which can lay in landfill for hundreds of years. The owner of my local pub can help GDP by developing the site into housing. No account is taken of the effect on the local community. The same applies to selling off school playing fields (no concern for the impact on children’s health) or building a road through a site of natural beauty (no value given to the natural environment).
So much for taking any account of how we feel. No wonder mental illness is on the rise!