Forty years ago, Robert Kennedy, gave a speech about the real wealth of Nations and GDP. Three months later he was assassinated.
What is the GDP, the Gross Domestic Product? A measure of the growth of society? The transformation into money, an abstract concept, of our health, of our time, of the environment? No one has ever calculated the COST of the GDP. The damage of empty sheds, of useless merchandise, of lorries that run around empty like maddened insects, of the destruction of the planet. No one has ever estimated the value of wasted time in queuing, the wasted years working to produce useless objects. Of the years thrown away to buy useless objects created by advertising. The time, The Earth, the life, the family (the only important ones) are concepts that are too simple for the GDP. A monster that devours the world. It eats it and accumulates it. It digests it and transforms it into nothing. The equation GDP=wealth is an enchantment. The useless products do not become useful because someone buys them.
”only when the last river dries up
when the last tree is torn down
when the last animal is killed
only then will you understand that money cannot be eaten.”
Creek Prophecy
Speech by Robert Kennedy, 18 March 1968, University of Kansas.
”We will never find a purpose for our nation nor for our personal satisfaction in the mere search for economic well-being, in endlessly amassing terrestrial goods.
We cannot measure the national spirit on the basis of the Dow-Jones, nor can we measure the achievements of our country on the basis of the gross domestic product (GDP)
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 those who break them. 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.
GDP并没有考虑到我们孩子的健康，他们的教育质量，或者他们游戏的快乐。它也没有包括我们的诗歌之美，或者婚姻的稳定；没有包括我们关于公共问题争论的智慧，或者我们公务员的清廉。它既没有衡量我们的勇气、智慧，也没有衡量对祖国的热爱。简言之，它衡量一切，但并不包括使我们的生活有意义的东西。它可以告诉我们关于美国人的一切，但没有告诉我们，为什么我们可以因做一个美国人而骄傲。
