Dear Editor:
Prosperity
What is prosperity? To me it would seem a roof over your head, adequate clothing, healthy food, clean water to drink as well as clean air to breath; loving supporting family and meaningful employment cover most of the basics. This sort of prosperity has been practiced through mankind’s history as practical, economical and non-invasive to others. These basics are achievable in caring and sharing community environments, whether that community is small or international. Many communities like this have existed on Earth and some still exist today but most have been violently wiped out by elitists and fundamentalist philosophies afraid their own captive audiences will switch back to these basic, practical understandings of life. Still today growing numbers of people feel these basics should be recognized as fundamental birth rights.
Our present predominant measurement of prosperity by governments and the stock market is Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and that doesn’t guarantee any of my previously mentioned basics. Controversially, GDP encourages their destruction. The GDP measurement is only concerned with the exchange of money. Therefore man made environmental disasters and clean up, pollution, expanding prison populations, war, refugee camps and refugee migrations, deregulating invasive industries so they can expand unmolested by moral concerns, destruction of social programs so destitute people are forced to work for less creating more profits for the rich, heartless egomaniacs and Dictators controlling vast amounts of wealth and property increase the GDP. Anything that grows the GDP is defined as prosperity under this measurement. This measurement is a nirvana for selfish, aggressive, psychopathic activity.
GDP creates the class systems: entitlement based on species, colour, race, gender, beliefs, location and economic opportunities. It destroys ambition and stimulates greed. It creates a majority of “losers” that are dispensable and it has no capacity to care. It cannot measure the pain and suffering it creates because there is no monetary value that can reflect that. GDP severely limits human potential, innovation and compassionate progress on this Earth.
GDP has to ignore that we are equals: that we are born equal and after our brief experience here on Earth we shall all meet the great equalizer of death.
We need a new measurement of progress. One already exists called a general progress indicator.
Greg Chatterson
Fort San, Sk
